University Times

Pitt trustees have approved a $23.4 million regional bio-containment laboratory, to be built in the University’s Bioscience Tower 3.
The lab will complement and support bio-defense research activities of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which will grant nearly $18 million toward the project. Remaining funding will come from debt financing, with annual operating costs (including debt service) to come from the Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences and the School of Medicine.
Research at the bio-containment lab will focus on developing therapies, vaccines and diagnostics for bio-terror agents as well as naturally occurring, emerging infections. The facility also will be available and equipped to assist national, state and local public health efforts during emergencies.
In announcing its grant to Pitt last fall, NIAID cited an insufficient amount of comprehensive, state-of-the-art lab space in the United States as a barrier to bio-defense research.
The trustees’ property and facilities committee gave its approval to the bio-containment lab project last month. The committee also approved four other construction projects and four leases.
The projects include:
• A $4.2 million renovation of the interior of the McCormick Hall dorm to improve mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems; upgrade and reconfigure living spaces (reducing the number of beds to 140); provide new finishes and fixtures, and comply with current building codes. McCormick Hall is less in demand among Pitt students than neighboring residence halls and its retention rate is lower, trustees were told. Auxiliary reserve funds will fund the project.
• Construction at the Johnstown campus of a three-story, 108-bed student housing building to meet an urgent need for more on-campus housing at Pitt-Johnstown. Occupancy has been running above 100 percent during the current academic year, and the demand is expected to grow next year, according to background materials distributed to the property and facilities committee. The project’s $4.9 million cost will come out of the University’s auxiliary budget.
• A $2.2 million renovation of the Johnstown campus’s Hemlock Hall, to be funded by Pitt-Johnstown auxiliary enterprise funds. The building’s systems, furnishings and finishes “are all well beyond their estimated useful life,” according to the committee’s background statement.
• Construction at the Bradford campus of a three-story, 103-bed student housing facility to cost nearly $4.3 million. Auxiliary debt will fund the project. Residence halls at Pitt-Bradford are filled to capacity and there is a waiting list for on-campus housing, trustees were told.
Leases approved by the property and facilities committee include:
• Extension of a lease for 29,153 square feet of space in the Sterling Plaza Building for the Pitt-centered National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project. The term is for six years (though Dec. 31, 2010) at an initial cost of $699,672, to rise annually based on an additional sum of 33.9 percent of increases in operating expenses for the space.
• A new lease enabling the School of Social Work’s Pennsylvania Child Welfare Training Programs to move into larger space (39,670 square feet) at Winding Hill Corporate Center in Mechanicsburg, Pa. The lease is for seven years (through Dec. 31, 2011) for a total rental of nearly $4.9 million.
• A new lease that will allow the education school’s Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center to move from its current, inadequate space in Trees Hall to larger space (7,543 square feet) in the Birmingham Towers on the South Side – one mile from the Oakland campus and less than a mile from the UPMC Sports Medicine Complex. Terms of the lease will be for 62 months (through May 31, 2009) at an annual rental cost of $128,230. The total cost will be $641,154, with the first two months rent-free.
• A sublease to provide 22,430 of additional lab and office space in the Bridgeside Point building for the Pitt-UPMC McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The sublease term is for five years (through Feb. 28, 2009) at an average annual rent of $562,650, to be adjusted annually based on a prorated share of the amount by which operating expenses for the space increases from one year to the next.
The trustees’ property and facilities committee is authorized by the full Board of Trustees to oversee property transactions in excess of $500,000 and approve University construction projects costing more than $1 million.
– Bruce Steele