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Don Leuenberger outlines UNMC’s growth to a lunch crowd at the Omaha Press Club. |
That was the message delivered by Don Leuenberger, UNMC vice chancellor for business and finance, as he spoke at the Omaha Press Club’s noon forum series on Feb. 16. Nearly 40 people attended the event.
Leuenberger detailed UNMC’s immediate expansion plans and also offered insights into possible growth opportunities over the next decade. He said nearly 9,000 people currently work at UNMC and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center. This number has nearly doubled over the past 20 years.
Noting that UNMC brought in more than $72 million in research grants during the 2004-05 fiscal year, Leuenberger said the medical center has a goal of bringing in $200 million by the end of the decade. “Research is the underpinning for all our other activities,” he said, adding that UNMC’s goal is to be the best place in the U.S. for conducting biomedical research.
In 2004, UNMC opened the Durham Research Center on the west end of campus. This facility is filled with 67 scientists and 337 employees with $50 million of external research funding. Before the end of this year, UNMC will begin work on a twin research tower next to the Durham Research Center.
Leuenberger said UNMC has added 564 employees over the past five years and anticipates that the second research tower will generate another 200 positions.
A second new building on the UNMC campus – the Center for Health Science Education – is in the beginning stage of construction and will be completed by the fall of 2008, Leuenberger said. This building, which is located on the northeast corner of the intersection of 42nd Street and Emile Street, will serve as the anchor of UNMC’s educational enterprise on the east end of campus.
“Technology transfer is important,” Leuenberger said. “We think it happens every spring at graduation. We’re creating new knowledge and sending these graduates around the state where they can make a difference in people’s lives.”
In conjunction with construction of this education building, Leuenberger said UNMC will work with the city to try to “calm traffic” on 42nd Street between Leavenworth Street and Harney Street. They will do this by making 42nd Street two lanes instead of its present four lanes. A third lane will be added at intersections to allow for traffic wishing to make left turns. UNMC will beautify this stretch of road by adding trees and brick pavers, he said.
Since the UNMC campus is somewhat landlocked, Leuenberger said the best expansion opportunities lie on the west end of campus around Saddle Creek Road. A feasibility study is being conducted to determine the possibility of moving Saddle Creek Road a couple blocks west between Leavenworth Street and Dodge Street.
This would allow UNMC room to develop the area and possibly add more research buildings, he said. Since Saddle Creek Road frequently floods when heavy rains occur, Leuenberger said moving the road west could allow for a small lake and several ponds to be developed in the existing Saddle Creek Road area between Leavenworth and Dodge streets. “This would greatly enhance the Midtown area and make it more attractive for people living there,” he said.
In September, Leuenberger said UNMC will submit its master plan for future building expansion to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Although the plan is still being formulated, Leuenberger suggested that three of the three priority projects could be a geriatric center, a public health facility and third research center with an emphasis on cancer research.
Leuenberger said the public can go online and check the progress of construction on the Center for Health Science Education, as UNMC has installed a Web cam that continually shows the building as construction proceeds. The Web site is http://www.unmc.edu/chse/.