Project Team in Place for Phase I of $160 Million Memphis Biotech Research Park

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). The Memphis Biotech Foundation has started design of a new Biotech research center that will be built along Union Avenue in front of the massive Baptist Medical Center building located in the Memphis Medical District. In a unique agreement originating in 2001 and finalized in 2002, the Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation (Memphis, Tennessee) gave the Memphis Biotech Foundation the former Baptist Memorial Hospital building, land, a parking garage and a power plant at no cost. Under the same agreement, the corporation gave a number of other medical office buildings to the University of Tennessee (Health Science Center).

The agreement called for the Memphis Biotech Foundation, the University of Tennessee (Health Science Center) and Baptist to then use all of the land and buildings to develop the UT/Baptist Research Park. Along with extensive biotech research facilities, the Park will also include an incubation program to develop new businesses in biotechnology and biomedicine. The gift by Baptist was valued conservatively at $40 million and is said to be the largest in history of the University of Tennessee system. Upon completion of Phase I, the existing Baptist Medical Center building will be demolished to accommodate future phases of the research park.

Commercial Tennessee, Incorporated (CTI) (Memphis, Tennessee) was chosen to assist in the acquisition and development of the site. CTI also oversaw the selection of the project team for the six-story, 165,000 square foot facility. The Hnedak Bobo Group (HBG) of Memphis, Tennessee will serve as Program/Construction Manager and TRO/The Ritchie Organization (TRO) of Memphis was selected as Lead Architect/Engineer/Interior Designer for the project. The $50 million building is Phase I of a master plan that hopes to eventually develop the site into a 1.2 million square foot research and development campus.

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