Research park project begins

UT facility expected to boost Memphis' science reputation

The Commercial Appeal
February 24, 2007
By Daniel Connolly

A huge pile of dirt on the site of the old Baptist Memorial Hospital signals the start of the UT-Baptist Research Park, a $450 million project that could shape the future of the Memphis economy.

Ground was broken this month for the park's first building, a secure facility where University of Tennessee scientists will study dangerous infectious diseases.

A groundbreaking ceremony is set for March 9.

"I think this is an area where we're going to see a lot of investment and jobs and so on," said Gerry Byrne, head of the laboratory program. "I think it's really just the start of something that's going to keep growing over the next decade."

The 2005 implosion of the old 960,000-square-foot Baptist hospital cleared the way for the research park, one of the most significant projects in the city's ongoing efforts to use science to improve the economy.

Local leaders are betting that creating more research space will spawn more technology-based businesses and improve the city's pharmaceutical and medical device industries, which are significant but small compared with Memphis' leading economic sector, logistics and transportation.

Today, the site of the first building, called the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, is a squared-off pit cut into the side of a gentle slope covered with recently seeded green grass. Workers began digging the pit Feb. 5 and have piled the excavated dirt near Union.

The two-story building is scheduled for completion next year and federal and state dollars will cover its $25 million cost, said University of Tennessee spokeswoman Shelia Champlin.

The building will improve UT's existing research programs into dangerous diseases like drug-resistant tuberculosis and tularemia, a respiratory ailment, Byrne said.

The government supports such research because it leads to the development of vaccines and drugs and helps the country prepare for a bioterrorism attack, he said.

Air filtration and other security measures prevent the diseases from escaping to the outside, he said.

The regional lab will be one of 13 facilities of its kind in the nation, and will improve Memphis' scientific reputation, Byrne said.

"This will be known as a real center of research in this area."

Construction on the next building in the research park, for the university's school of pharmacy, is scheduled to start this summer and end in 2009, Champlin said. The state is paying $42.8 million for the building, a modern facility for pharmacy professors and students who are currently scattered throughout six buildings on the UT campus, she said.

Plans call for the park to have six buildings, said Steve Bares, head of the Memphis Bioworks Foundation, the organization overseeing the project.

Government money is paying for the first two buildings, but Bares says he hopes that private businesses will pay for the other four as the area becomes a hot property in the research community. The entire park could take 10 to 15 years to complete, he said.

"These kinds of projects don't occur over a week or two," he said.

-- Daniel Connolly: 529-5296

UT-Baptist Research Park

Sept. 2005: Workers implode Baptist Memorial Hospital on Union Ave. Demolition and cleanup continues for months.

Feb. 1: Workers begin putting erosion control systems in place at the site.

Feb. 5: Workers break ground on the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, the first building at the site.

Local leaders are betting that creating more research space will spawn more technology-based businesses and improve the city's pharmaceutical and medical device industries.