Mayo Clinic will lease space in UWEC’s new Science and Health Sciences Building – The Spectator

A 30-year lease has been signed between UW-Eau Claire and Mayo Clinic Health System authorized by the UW System Board of Regents.

Under this agreement, Mayo Clinic will lease 10,000 square feet inside UW-Eau Claire’s new Science and Health Sciences Building, which will break ground in June. Mayo will occupy research, instruction, office and meeting space in the building.

“Our partnership with UW-Eau Claire on this project helps us invest in cutting-edge research and innovation in rural health care right here in Wisconsin,” said Dr. Richard Helmers, Mayo Clinic’s regional vice president in Wisconsin.

The five-story building will house more than 300,000 square feet of research, laboratory and other instructional space.

“We have a long-standing partnership with Mayo Clinic. Our research collaboration dates back to 2017. Last year we signed another 10-year collaboration agreement with them,” said Michael Carneyinterim provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, who was instrumental in the building’s design.

The expectation, Carney said, is that the building will open a new chapter for the university’s health and science programs.

Under the lease, Mayo’s 10,000 square feet of space will be spread across the building’s five floors and include learning spaces such as biomanufacturing labs, a surgical suite, telehealth training rooms and an innovation suite.

“Mayo does not work with many institutions. UW-Eau Claire was the second university in the world they partnered with,” Carney said. “The collaboration here is based on Mayo’s presence in Eau Claire and because Richard Helmers has built a close relationship with our chancellor.”

Carney said one product of this collaboration is a program called the Biomedical innovators. These are 10 highly educated students with an interest in healthcare who are recruited annually.

Through the program, each student receives a full scholarship and the opportunity to work as a freshman on a collaborative research project with a UW-Eau Claire faculty member and a Mayo Clinic physician. Carney said the first 10 of these scientists will graduate in May.

“The Biomedical Innovators Scholarship would not have happened if we had not had this long-term partnership with the Mayo Clinic,” Carney said. “Mayo sees this as an important recruitment tool for their future workforce. That’s why they invest so much in it.”

For the Biomedical Innovators in particular, Carney said the involvement with Mayo will give them an edge over other applicants as they seek employment at the clinic down the road. Moreover, he expects that the university expects an increase in the number of medical students in the future.

Overall, Carney said, the building will be more spacious than Phillips Hall while housing more facilities. As a result, the building will contain very few lecture rooms, meaning that the majority of lectures will take place in other buildings on campus.

“Most of what we’re putting into the science building is what’s already in Phillips Hall,” Carney said. “We will be moving the nursing department to the new building, as well as the animal care facilities currently located in Phillips and Hibbard.”

The building took seven years to design, with planning beginning in 2017. Carney said it took some time for the campus to receive full funding for the project.

“In 2019, we received approval for $110 million for the science building,” Carney said. “That was never what the building would cost to build, but the assumption was that we would get the remaining amount in the next state budget.”

Carney said the building was fully planned with the hope that all financing would eventually be approved. The total cost of the building is pegged at approximately $340 million. Mayo Clinic invested $13.7 million in the project. $231 million for Phase II financing was approved in the 2023-2025 capital budget.

“We decided to plan the entire building as if we were going to get the financing, rather than adding pieces as we went along,” Carney said. “We took a gamble, but it paid off.”

Carney said the conservative estimate for construction of the building is that it will be operational no later than fall 2027. Representatives from the university and the Mayo Clinic speak optimistically about the health and science building and the future of this partnership.

“Expanding and developing our excellence in research, education and patient care – Mayo Clinic’s three-pronged practice – is at the heart of this partnership, and we are grateful for every step leading to this investment in the future of the healthcare in rural areas,” Helmers said.

Wojahn can be reached at (email protected).