Trib: Surgery training center expands USF's role downtown

[USFishin]

Surgery training center expands USF's role downtown

By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune

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The new CAMLS building on South Franklin, shown here in an artist's rendering, is "the beginning of the concept of USF Downtown," said College of Medicine dean Stephen Klasko.  USF expects to break ground next month on a high-tech medical training center that will be the start of an expanded role for the university in downtown Tampa, USF health officials say.

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The university originally planned to build a 60,000 square-foot complex housing surgical simulation suites, a virtual hospital, robotics lab and meeting and classroom space.

But after it bought a downtown parking lot from the city of Tampa this summer, it added 30,000 square feet to the plans for architecture, engineering, business and possibly other university programs, USF officials said at a Tampa Downtown Partnership meeting earlier this week.

"It's the beginning of the concept of USF Downtown," said USF College of Medicine dean Stephen Klasko.

The three-story building will be on South Franklin Street, south of the Fort Brooke garage and a few blocks from the Tampa Convention Center.

The construction contract went to The Beck Group.

"We were told it needs to look very much like a high-tech building," Beck's managing director in Tampa, Mark House, said.

Current plans include a glass front, two stories high with a view onto Franklin Street.

"This will be USF's foothold in downtown Tampa," House said.

Since USF began developing its Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, or CAMLS, the price tag has edged up from $20 million to $25 million. USF Financing plans to raise the money with a bond issue.

The university had planned to locate the center in Tampa Heights north of downtown, but after the economy collapsed the property deal fell apart.

In June, USF agreed to pay the city of Tampa $3.5 million for the piece of land known as the HART lot, at the south end of downtown.

USF hopes to attract doctors from around the world to its new center. They'll learn and practice endoscopies, laparoscopies, stomach surgery, carotid stenting and other procedures, said Alexander Rosemurgy, USF associate dean for medical simulation and academic enrichment.

Shuttles will take them back and forth between the center and Tampa General Hospital, a few miles away on Davis Island.

The machines they would use are designed to mimic the functions and responses of a variety of body types, accounting for such factors as weight and age, Rosemurgy said.

Included in the collection is the Da Vinci Surgical System robot, which is so responsive that in the right hands it can peel the skin from a grape.

"We're teaching people a better way to practice specialty medicine," Rosemurgy said.

About a third of the users will be USF medical residents and students, said Deborah Sutherland, of the USF Health Office of Continuing Professional Development, a private, not-for-profit arm of USF that will manage the center.

Also, several medical equipment manufacturers, such as Intuitive Surgical, Stryker and Philips, will set up offices to provide training and do research and development.

"We're looking at how to attract large medical conferences to Tampa," Sutherland said.

She expects construction to be finished by December 2011.

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[Bullshutter]

I'm very mixed about this project, it is both a tragedy and a blessing.  This is a tragic use of this parcel in prime downtown real estate, a 3-story building does not belong in a parcel that has transportation capacities for a high-rise.  On the other hand, this is a crucial building that will host a highly sought after technology and will improve the technique of surgeons worldwide.  I wish this project was still slated for The Heights but you could always argue that this building will be better then the empty lot that currently sits downtown.

[KB]

I love the downtown location.  There is still a lot of land downtown. 

I would have thought this structure would have a parking garage under it.  Not that parking is a big problem downtown and it is next to a parking garage (though it is nice to control your own parking), but if anything to protect from potentional hurricane flooding.  I would think that having a high-tech building in a flood zone a few stories off the ground would be beneficial.

[KB]

But then again, the insurance may be cheaper than the cost of elevating the building?

[Bullshutter]

I love the downtown location.  There is still a lot of land downtown.

Thats the thing, there is a good chunk of land available downtown but only a few of those will cater to high-rises.  Most of the empty lots between the main downtown and channelside are restricted in height because of the nearby Davis Islands airport runway.  We are basically putting a low rise building in one of the few parcels that would be ideal for a highrise

[SattyBull]

I'm very mixed about this project, it is both a tragedy and a blessing.  This is a tragic use of this parcel in prime downtown real estate, a 3-story building does not belong in a parcel that has transportation capacities for a high-rise.  On the other hand, this is a crucial building that will host a highly sought after technology and will improve the technique of surgeons worldwide.  I wish this project was still slated for The Heights but you could always argue that this building will be better then the empty lot that currently sits downtown.

Yeah the lot is empty now, but would it be empty in a few years when/if the economy picks back up? There could have been another Skypoint/Element or at least something like the Residences on Franklin at that spot. This is a building you find in an office park, not a Downtown CBD.

Other than that though, couldn't have said it better myself.  ;D

[Paul Wall]

There is so much empty capacity downtown. I dont think anything was ever going to be built there.

[SattyBull]

There is so much empty capacity downtown. I dont think anything was ever going to be built there.

Well now that the trolley extension is going right in front of the place it at least was more attractive to potential developers. Plus as you said there if there is so much land in downtown, why not put it elsewhere? This doesn't just fall on USF, it falls on Tampa for allowing it in the first place. A lot of people are big time PO'd at Iorio and Genshaft for this one.

[Paul Wall]

There is so much empty capacity downtown. I dont think anything was ever going to be built there.

Well now that the trolley extension is going right in front of the place it at least was more attractive to potential developers. Plus as you said there if there is so much land in downtown, why not put it elsewhere? This doesn't just fall on USF, it falls on Tampa for allowing it in the first place. A lot of people are big time PO'd at Iorio and Genshaft for this one.

They should be more pissed about the fact they had that one block torn down and nothing ever happened to it for yrs and then they go and make it paved parking lot.. right in the heart of downtown