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Cuomo Signs Grant for UB Medical School

$35 million boosts plan to move to new building near downtown

By Jay Rey

December 13, 2011

 Plans for a new University at Buffalo Medical School took another step forward Tuesday, with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in town to sign off on $35 million in seed money for the project.

Cuomo authorized the funding in August but formally approved UB's application for the $35 million state grant Tuesday with a signing at the Center for the Arts on the North Campus in Amherst.

The money allows UB to begin pushing ahead on relocating the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from the South Campus on Main Street to a new $375 million building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus near downtown — a process that would take place over the next five years.

More specifics emerged Tuesday:

* While the $35 million is seed money, the bulk of the financing — roughly $215 million — would be borrowed by the state and paid back by UB from a variety of sources, including revenues from Medical School fees and research funding, UB President Satish K. Tripathi said after the Cuomo event.

The Medical School would use $25 million in reserves and raise another $50 million through philanthropy, while the State University of New York would chip in $50 million originally earmarked for maintenance of UB's 60-year-old Medical School building on Main Street.

* A site for the new Medical School should be chosen by spring. UB has been eyeing a couple of locations in the block at Main and High streets, near Buffalo General Hospital and the new center for vascular care and medical research.

* UB expects to begin seeking bids from architects next month with hopes of having designs for the building by April 2013.

UB continues to talk with officials from Kaleida Health with hopes of coordinating the construction of the Medical School with the construction of a new Women & Children's Hospital on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

* UB wants to begin construction of the new Medical School in September 2013 and complete the building by fall 2016.

Moving the Medical School closer to the area's health care institutions has been considered a priority, for improving not only the quality of medical education at UB but also patient care in the region.

Tripathi stressed that the new Medical School was just the next phase of the university's long-term strategic plan — UB 2020.

"UB has been waiting a long time for Albany to act, and thanks to Gov. Cuomo's leadership, UB 2020 will finally become a reality," he said.

Cuomo ushered in sweeping higher-education reforms this year, including a "rational" tuition policy that allows SUNY colleges and universities to raise tuition $300 a year over the next five years to help stabilize campus funding.

In addition, Cuomo authorized $140 million in challenge grants for the four SUNY research centers to focus on economic-development initiatives, such as the Medical School. He is scheduled to visit Stony Brook today (Wednesday) to sign its grant application.

Cuomo, who was joined by state and local lawmakers Tuesday at UB — talked about rebuilding New York's economy by investing in higher education.

Officials project that UB 2020 will help create as many as 3,000 new jobs over the next seven years, including more than 1,600 temporary construction jobs and nearly 1,000 faculty, research and staff positions at UB.

"It's their vision," Cuomo told reporters Tuesday, "and I'm glad to see it become a reality."

jrey@buffnews.com