State Building Commission Gives Green Light for UTC to Proceed on $60.8 Million Health Sciences Building
State officials have given the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga the official nod to proceed with selecting a designer and construction manager/general contractor for the new home of its School of Nursing program.
The planned $60.8 million health sciences building, which was included in Gov. Bill Lee's $52.6 billion budget, received unanimous approval from State Building Commission members on Thursday.
State Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bo Watson, R-Hixson, a physical therapist and the market director for therapy services at HCA Parkridge Medical Center, said the new nursing school and lab building "comes at a critical time in the state's strategy to address workforce development challenges in the health care sector, especially nursing.
"The new building and lab will incorporate technological advances in nurse training that simply aren't possible in an older facility," Watson said in a text on Friday. "The new nursing building deepens UTC's footprint in the clinical health care space along with well-established doctorate-level physical therapy, occupational therapy, exercise science, athletic training and public health programs."