ASU hosted a virtual ribbon cutting ceremony today for the new PBC Innovation Center building.
The building is part of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus and was a collaborative effort between the real estate company Wexford Science + Technology, ASU and the city of Phoenix.
Located on the southwest corner of Fifth and Garfield streets, the new building will house life sciences research labs, offices and community spaces. It will also have a jobs center on the ground floor that will work with community colleges and be open to everyone.
Arizona Board of Regents Chair Larry Penley said the board is "happy to celebrate" the new building. He said because ASU, NAU and UA all have facilities under the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, it creates more opportunities for collaboration.
"It really makes the Phoenix Biomedical Campus come along," Penley said. "What we have here in Phoenix is an opportunity to bring faculty, students and all the supporting staff together in the kind of educational enterprise that will make Phoenix grow even more."
Phoenix City Councilmember Carlos Garcia said he is excited to work with the center to provide community resources.
"If we've learned anything from a pandemic, it's been that we need to take care of each other," Garcia said. "We see this campus as an opportunity for collaboration, not only for all the universities, but for the rest of the community to be able to think about health and think about being able to work together to solve the problems that hurt us."
University President Michael Crow said this building will help drive Phoenix forward because of the importance of collaboration and focus on life sciences.
"The Wexford building that we're here ribbon cutting for is really a fantastic example of the market forces coming together with creative forces," Crow said. "Bringing that all together here in downtown Phoenix is fantastic."
Reach the reporter at gmlieber@asu.edu and follow @G_Mira_ on Twitter.
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