Wednesday, July 11, 2007

More good news; this time from:






GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In the last decade or so, this city has been the beneficiary of investments in new academic campuses, a civic arena, a convention center, new parks, a transit center and more than 1,500 new units of downtown housing.

Even so, Grand Rapids has never experienced anything near the concentrated magnitude of the medical research, training and patient facility construction now occurring on Health Hill.

From the summit of the hill, on this city’s north end, and stretching roughly half a mile in both directions along Michigan Street, a stunning array of buildings is under construction, reflecting a commitment of nearly $1 billion by the area’s prominent families and medical institutions. There are a new medical school, a children’s hospital, a biomedical research center, a cancer treatment center, and two medical treatment and office buildings. Also under construction is a seven-level underground parking garage; it will hold 2,300 cars and cost $30 million.

All told, construction managers say, the buildings will cover 1.2 million square feet. By 2010, when construction is completed, those buildings, several designed by world-renowned architects, will provide enough space to treat thousands of people a day and employ 5,000 people, 2,500 more jobs than exist now on Health Hill.

The hill, also called Pill Hill here, earned its nicknames a few years ago when a medical research institute opened there.________________________________________
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