Planning for facilities upcoming

With a $90 million vote of confidence in the Health Sciences System from legislators, Chancellor Jim Rogers and his team are looking to begin planning new buildings for the system in Reno and Las Vegas.

In the meantime, Health Sciences System officials will begin renovating one building at UNLV and two in Reno and are discussing with the Public Works Board the two new buildings.

Higher education leaders say the money from legislators was a significant show of confidence, especially because the Health Sciences System’s plans to expand the medical school’s specializations and increase the number of physicians and nurses trained in Nevada are still vague.

“It was a tight budget year, and we were fortunate enough to get as much as we did,” said Marcia Turner, interim vice chancellor and chief operating officer of the Health Sciences System. “They (legislators) really understood the importance of it, and they have shown their support through these funds during the budget crunch.”

One of the new buildings will be a $59 million, 66,000-square-foot “advanced clinical training and research” building on UNLV’s Shadow Lane campus. But blueprints, designs and a date for construction haven’t been decided yet.

UNLV’s School of Nursing and part of the University of Nevada School of Medicine eventually are to move into the new facility, according to Turner.

At the University of Nevada, Reno a $48 million “medical education learning lab” building encompassing more than 51,000 square feet is being planned. But little else about the building has been decided.

The system also received funding to:

• Renovate a building on UNLV’s Shadow Lane campus, adding 31,500 square feet for biomedical research.

• Renovate Savitt Hall and Cain Hall at UNR for a combined 26,000 square feet of yet-to-be-determined use.

Rogers didn’t get everything he wanted for the system, however. No money was set aside for a 90,000-square-foot building planned for a site next to the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute in downtown Las Vegas.

And while the system can get started renovating the three buildings, Turner said, it still has to raise a significant amount of money for the new buildings.

Turner said her team has “identified” several donors.

Rogers said funding for the Health Sciences System was the most significant success for higher education this legislative session.

But overall, Rogers said, higher education made out well during the legislative session.

At UNLV, students can expect two new buildings currently under construction to be finished next year.

The first floors of the science, engineering and technology building, a $113 million, 206,000-square-foot building on the north end of campus, will open to students by the spring 2008 semester, according to UNLV’s vice president for finance, Gerry Bomotti.

The rest of the building, including the upper-floor research labs, should be completed by summer 2008, he said.

At the other end of UNLV’s campus, Greenspun Hall received the rest of its funding by the legislature, and should be completed by summer 2008. The building’s 121,000 square feet will house KUNV-FM, 91.5, a high-definition television studio and the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and end up with a price tag of $93.7 million.

Nevada State College also received a boost when the Legislature allowed the college to use $4 million in unspent funds from its first building to plan a nursing building on its campus in Henderson.