By Jeff Hansel
jhansel@postbulletin.com
Mayo Clinic is in the final stages of accepting a $2.3 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to design, construct and equip a new bio-medical research facility in downtown Rochester.
The clinic will build the 12,000-square-foot facility, the Mayo Clinic Imaging Center, by kicking in matching funds for a total of $4.7 million. That's about $390 per square foot. By contrast, the 337,000-square-foot Oakwood Broadway Plaza cost only $131 per square foot.
Construction will begin in early 2005, Sen. Norm Coleman's office said. The building will be next to the former Connolly's Downtown Motel, said Dr. Hugh Smith, chair of the clinic's Rochester Board of Governors. Imaging researchers currently are housed in a building in the 400 block of Third Street Southwest.
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"They're going to build right next to it, and then do a gradual shift of people and equipment next door," Smith said.
The funds will provide "a new, state-of-the-art building and the latest in radiology equipment in order to diagnose diseases such as cancer and heart disease," Coleman's office said. Smith said the facility actually will be "beyond state-of-the-art."
According to Mayo, the facility "keeps the clinic and the state of Minnesota as a leader in bio-medical research."
