Construction has begun on a new home for the Gonzaga-University of Washington Regional Health Partnership.
The universities held a virtual groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the building, which will be located in Spokane’s University District.
The four-year-old regional partnership is now housed in multiple places on the Gonzaga campus. UW medical students, for example, study in the Schoenberg Center.
The new four-level, 90,000 square foot building will provide them with a much larger and more technologically appropriate space.
Dr. Darryl Potyk is the chief of medical education for the partnership. He says the medical students will be joined by students from UW’s physician assistant and Gonzaga’s nursing and human physiology programs.
“There’s going to be space available in these buildings for research to occur. We’re hoping that we’ll have some people from the University of Washington come over and do some research here as well as space for entrepreneurial research that will benefit our society, our region, our students and us as citizens of Spokane," he said.
You may have noticed Potyk referred to buildings, plural. Next door to the new building is an older structure, owned and renovated by McKinstry, where students will also learn.
Medical students, such as Ali Zander, say they’re looking forward to the new building, even if it might come too late for them to benefit from it.
“It's great having students that are that potentially interested in the medical profession, that’s including PAs, that’s including nursing, physicians, just having them around other like-minded individuals enables you to get your questions answered, be able to work in the same space and just have that open dialogue for encouragement and conversation and just that easy resource. I’m super excited for that," Zander said.
Construction has begun. The new building is scheduled to open in about two years.