Top Beam Placed on Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building

A construction milestone was celebrated March 3 at the new Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building, as the final beam was placed atop the 10-story building in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.

Located on the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix campus at 475 N. Fifth St., the 245,000-square-foot research building will be a hub for healthcare and scientific innovation when it opens in early 2017.

The Center for Applied Nanoscience and Biomedicine will be headquartered in the building. Researchers at the center are already making cutting-edge discoveries, such as the Rapid DNA test, which detects early-stage bacterial infections. The center’s interdisciplinary approach aims for early diagnostics of human diseases.

Nearly 500 jobs in design and construction were created during the build-out, and another 360 permanent jobs are expected to be created in healthcare, education and biosciences once the building opens next year.

DPR Construction •Sundt Construction, Inc., a joint venture, managed construction. Architects for the project are CO Architects and Ayres Saint Gross.

The building is the latest development in the steady expansion of the downtown Phoenix Biomedical Campus and expanding academic medical center. In 2012, the award-winning Health Sciences Education Building opened, housing health education for UA and Northern Arizona University. The University of Arizona Cancer Center at Dignity Health St. Josephs, a 220-square-foot outpatient and research facility, opened in 2015.