Mercer changes location of expanded medical school campus in Columbus. Here’s why.
Mercer University has changed the location of the expanded medical school campus it plans to build in Columbus.
Instead of renovating the former Synovus call center on 11th Street and owned by the W.C. Bradley Co., the Macon-based university will construct the facility on property owned by TSYS, a Global Payments company, north of the company’s Riverfront Campus.
“The new location will allow for construction of a free-built structure to better suit the needs of medical school students, faculty and staff, and will also provide an iconic locale on the banks of the Chattahoochee,” Mercer said Monday in its news release.
According to Mercer’s original plan announced in May and updated in November, Mercer was set to turn the 60,000-square-foot, two-story Rothschild Building on 11th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, into a three-story building covering 76,000 square feet. The project was estimated to cost $32..4 million and open in August 2021.
Now, Mercer plans to construct a 77,000-square-foot, two-story facility on six acres west of First Avenue and north of the train overpass adjacent to the TSYS campus. The vacant land stretches north from Railroad Avenue to 18th Street.
It is expected to be completed in late 2021 or early 2022, but the inaugural class of first-year Mercer medical students in Columbus still is scheduled to enroll in August 2021. An updated cost estimate for the project was not immediately available.
“We would like to thank the W.C. Bradley Co., TSYS, Global Payments and the Columbus community at-large for the spirit of collaboration and overwhelming generosity they have shown during the planning phase of this process,” Mercer president William Underwood said in the news release. “Mercer University School of Medicine in Columbus will be among the most beautiful medical school campuses in the country and will stand as yet another testament to the ethos of this vibrant community and its investment in solving one of this region’s most pressing needs by training future generations of medical doctors.”
Troy Woods, chairman of Global Payments, said in the news release, “TSYS and Global Payments are proud to make this significant gift to Mercer University for the benefit of the entire Chattahoochee Valley and the broader medical community. For many years, TSYS has been a leader in the development and building of our community, and today our commitment is stronger than ever.”
Mercer medical students have been doing clinical rotations with Columbus doctors for more than 20 years. In 2012, the Macon-based university expanded its involvement in the local medical community by offering clinical education to third- and fourth-year medical students at Midtown Medical Center (now called Piedmont Columbus Regional) and St. Francis Hospital. That program has grown from 12 to 40 students in seven years.
Now, Mercer expects to eventually increase that number to 240 students in the downtown Columbus campus. That would equal enrollment at the university’s other two medical school campuses, in Macon since 1982 and in Savannah since 2008.
The expansion is funded by donations from the local community, which will be matched by the university, as well as operational funding from the state, according to the news release.
“The opportunity given to Mercer University School of Medicine to develop a four-year campus in Columbus will be transformational for the health of west Georgia,” Dr. Jean Sumner, dean of the school, said in the news release. “This site is incredibly beautiful and well located. The gift reflects the servant leadership that characterizes this amazing community.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 11:52 AM.
