USC plans $200 million health-care campus

The University of South Carolina has plans to build a $200 million health-care campus for its School of Medicine and has requested $50 million from state lawmakers to jump start the project.

The 39-year-old school would go on 14 acres near Palmetto Health Richland hospital in North Columbia that USC owns, school chief operating officer Ed Walton said after a budget request hearing before a state House panel on Wednesday.

USC and the hospital’s parent company, Palmetto Health, have agreed to merge their medical practices. The university opened a medical school in Greenville in 2012 next to Greenville Memorial Hospital.

USC President Harris Pastides said the new health-care campus, which would include additional research space, would not compete with the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, the state’s other main medical school.

The USC School of Medicine’s lease agreement with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs at the Dorn VA Center on Garners Ferry Road ends in 2030. The building needs $75 million in improvements and the rent is expected to rise from $1 a year to $7.5 million a year under a new lease, university officials said.

USC has undergone a building boom under the leadership of Pastides with more than $600 million in academic and athletics projects.

More work is planned including renovating the Carolina Coliseum into a second student union in a project that could cost about $50 million to $60 million, Pastides said.

The student union would be on the concourse level, Walton said. The building, which already houses Gamecock basketball practice facilities and offices, could include student services, such as financial aid offices, in the basement.

That project, which needs approval from the USC board, would be completed around 2020, Walton said.

USC did not request state money for the Coliseum this year, but the state’s flagship university asked for another $46.3 million in state money for its Columbia campus in addition to the School of Medicine relocation.

The requests include additional professors and career counselors at its popular business school and Honors College as well as building renovations and additions.

The largest request outside the health-care campus is $21.5 million to renovate and modernize the building now housing the law school, one of the largest classroom buildings on campus. The university received $3.5 million from the state last year for the work. USC plans to spend another $20 million to add science labs.

The law school is moving to a new $80 million building in 2017.

Rep. Jim Merrill, a Berkeley Republican who chairs the House higher education budget panel, said he does not know if USC’s requests will make the House’s final budget proposal. His panel is still hearing requests from other state colleges.

USC’s $200 million health-care campus would open in two phases.

The first 130,000-square-foot building, slated to open in 2020 at a cost of $80 million, would include classrooms and other teaching facilities. USC would use the $30 million in gifts and city and county government funds along with the $50 million in state money requested for next year.

The second phase would include a 165,000-square-foot research facility with space for the school’s other clinical health programs opening in 2023 at a cost of $120 million paid with cash, bonds and gifts. No other state money would be requested, Walton said.

USC has not decided what to do if state lawmakers do not provide the $50 million to the health-care campus in the budget next year, Pastides said.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 3:26 PM with the headline "USC plans $200 million health-care campus."