University of Iowa eyeing $20M biomedical research addition

CORALVILLE — As the University of Iowa makes moves to fill out its nearly 500-acre Oakdale Campus in Coralville, it’s seeking Board of Regents approval to build a $20 million addition onto its 8-year-old Biomedical Research Support Facility.

The proposal will attach a 17,200-square-foot one-story addition to the northwest corner of the existing 51,240-square-foot biomedical support facility — which debuted in 2015 to support its main-campus health science research.

That original project included surgical, X-ray, procedural and gene editing spaces, among other things, supporting research across an array of UI colleges and departments. The National Institutes of Health will cover part of the $19.8 million cost for the addition with a $7.8 million grant. The UI Carver College of Medicine would cover the remaining $12 million.

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“Researchers at the University of Iowa require adequate space to match program growth and conduct a wide range of externally funded research activities, which support critical advancements in the health sciences,” according to the UI request for board approval to start building the project this fall.

“Adequate biomedical lab space is needed to recruit and retain top-notch researchers and their programs from a range of disciplines,” according to the request. “This proposed facility expansion is critically needed to address current and future needs for the important research performed at the University of Iowa.”

Building boom

The project, if approved, would add to a growing list of new UI academic and health care buildings underway across the Corridor — from the university’s $525.6 million hospital under construction in North Liberty to a planned 842,000-gross-square-foot inpatient hospital tower on the main UIHC campus.

Administrators haven’t shared details of that project’s exact size or budget, but five-year plans show expectations to spend $620.9 million on the new tower between 2024 and 2028 — excluding any spending before 2024 and after 2028.

In April, the regents granted the UI approval to proceed with $185 million in health care and medicine-related construction, including a $37 million emergency room expansion.

The university also is pursuing a $95 million two-floor addition to its existing inpatient tower and a $49 million expansion of its neonatal intensive care unit in its 6-year-old, nearly $450 million UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

And, in June, the university got board approval to spend $249 million on a new 263,000-square-foot “Health Sciences Academic Building” that will house the communication sciences and disorders, health and human physiology and physical therapy and rehabilitation science departments.

UI administrators plan to finance about half that project with debt, flagging in this week’s board agenda a coming bond sale in September. “Two bond issues are being planned,” board spokesman Josh Lehman told The Gazette. “With the first expected this September, and the second likely following in late 2024 or early 2025.”

Among funding sources for much of the planned UI Health Care construction is hospital patient revenue, philanthropy and bonding.

Oakdale construction

In searching for a site for more research support space, UI officials said the Oakdale Campus seemed the most logical — as it would “maximize constructive collaboration and minimize overlap with existing facilities.”

“Additionally,” according to board documents, “this location provides more opportunities for future growth and compliments the UI campus master plan.”

With more than a dozen vacant lots across its research park — amounting to more than 80 acres — the university in June sought to make that land more attractive to potential developers by terminating a ground lease with the regents, allowing others to buy or lease property directly from the UI.

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“Allowing the university to directly sell or lease land where appropriate will help attract new business to the research park, growing Iowa’s workforce and enhancing the state’s biosciences industry reputation,” UI Chief Innovation Officer Jon Darsee said then.

The research park currently boasts more than 30 companies, including nine biotech and life sciences businesses; two medical device companies; and several others related to health care and medical research.

If the biomedical research addition is approved, the university will begin work on the building in the fall, with expectations to complete it in spring of 2025.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com