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Councilman Greg Stanton
Arizona Republic My Turn Column
October 2006
Medical School Opening Continues Great Economic Momentum for Phoenix
Attracting quality, higher-wage jobs.
Creating a better educated workforce.
Establishing a progressive, knowledge-based economy.
That was the Phoenix City Council's vision a few years back when we passed on the Arizona Cardinals football stadium and chose instead to invest in research and education as the cornerstone of our city's long-term economic future.
Today, that decision is paying great dividends for Phoenix and the entire state of Arizona.
This week's grand opening of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, in collaboration with Arizona State University, continues the momentum. The new program in the historic Phoenix Union High School buildings is the culmination of six years of discussions between the city and UA on creating a presence for the medical school in the heart of our city. The City Council has supported the concept from the start and worked to move it forward. Now, top medical students will learn and have the opportunity to work with world-renowned researchers on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus at Fifth and Van Buren streets.
Why is this such an important step?
The medical school is a key piece of an economic engine that is revving to lift the region to new heights. The school and the whole Biomedical Campus are drawing educated, creative thinkers to Phoenix from other parts of the country and the world.
And all of us are benefiting.
Healthcare consulting company Tripp Umbach forecasts that by next year the campus' economic impact will be $77 million, with nearly 1,000 new jobs created. By 2025, those numbers are estimated to jump to as high as $2 billion and 24,000 jobs.
All from a piece of land that sat mostly empty until just a few years ago.
Others are already noticing our progress. Phoenix recently won the "Economic Engines of Arizona Award" for the campus from Arizona Business Magazine and a Maricopa Association of Governments "Desert Peaks" award for the public/private partnership that led to the genesis of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and International Genomics Consortium (IGC).
Some of our key partners are already making exciting breakthroughs:
- IGC/TGen –These organizations are making international headlines, blazing trails in translational genomics research. Their efforts received a strong recent boost with the announcement that the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, both part of the National Institutes of Health, picked IGC/TGen to lead a critical component of The Cancer Genome Atlas project. The research is looking into cataloging genomic changes associated with cancer.
- Arizona Biomedical Collaborative (ABC) – The first ABC building next to IGC/TGen is scheduled for completion next spring. The joint ASU/UA facility will provide wet labs for UA researchers and house a major ASU initiative in biomedical informatics – methods for using computers in biomedical research. Planning is underway for the second ABC building with more research space and for a new Medical Education building, providing additional classrooms for UA medical students, the UA College of Pharmacy and more.
- Bioscience High School – The school opened in August, adjacent to the Biomedical Campus and in a few years will teach up to 400 students – our future leaders in the field.
- ASU's downtown campus is open just a few blocks away, with thousands of students already here and more on the way in future years.
We're becoming a research and education hub.
We're boosting our economy, while providing the world with new, lifesaving research.
And we're not stopping here.
Our nucleus on the Biomedical Campus will continue to expand, with the heart of the city emerging as an international leader in these crucial, progressive fields and the city's vision paying off for all of Arizona.
Phoenix Councilman Greg Stanton serves on the Flinn Foundation Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee and chairs the City Council Knowledge Workforce Subcommittee.
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