Months after announcing it would tear down the old 1941 Technology Annex in favor of a 78,000-square-foot Innovation Hub near the M.D. Anderson Library, the university is officially charting a course for a new 55,000-square-foot medical research building to be located near the Tilman J. Fertitta College of Family Medicine, according to a recent filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Registration (TDLR).
The building will be located at 5150 Medical Service Drive, behind the Fertitta College. According to the university, construction will cost $58.1 million, with a total project cost of $77.5 million.
“As the University of Houston continues expanding its impact in healthcare education and biomedical research, this new building will provide much-needed research space for the UH Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine and support the University’s efforts to advance scientific discovery and improve health outcomes for Texans,” a UH spokesman told the Houston Business Journal.
The project is expected to be finished by summer 2028, months after the Innovation Hub’s completion.
UH’s investment in medical facilities arrives as other Texas schools are spending millions of dollars into similar facilities over the next few years. The University of Texas alone is investing $3 billion into MD Anderson’s Patient Care Building 1 project and $299 million into the UT Health Houston School of Public Health’s new facility.
In April, the UH system broke ground on a $15 million medical research facility in the Rio Grande Valley, with the aim of addressing doctor shortages and more in South Texas. Last year, the UH system revealed that completion of the Population Health Complex at 1441 Moursund in the Texas Medical Center would be completed sometime this fall.