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Research Highlights
VA Announces New Public-Private Partnership to Improve Clinical and Research Facilities at Durham VAMC
Taken from the Veterans Health Administration Highlights dated January 11, 2002
VA and LCOR, a national real estate firm specializing in public-private development, have signed a master development agreement to expand the Durham, North Carolina, VA Medical Center and to create a new "City of Medicine Center," a mixed-use campus on VA hospital property.
LCOR will construct a 15,000 square-foot clinic within the existing medical center, up to 40,000 square feet of research and laboratory space, and add 100 parking spaces. LCOR will use eight acres of VA-owned land to construct as many as nine buildings totaling 650,000 square feet of space and a 500,000 square-foot expansion to the parking garage. The new City of Medicine Center will include private-sector medical office buildings, research laboratories, commercial and educational administrative-office space, a pedestrian-oriented retail center, a suites-hotel and a residential facility.
The City of Medicine Center facilities, which will cost approximately $160 million, will be privately owned under a 75-year ground lease. LCOR’s ground-lease payments to VA will be used to offset VA costs for its use of space and services in the development complex. Ownership of the buildings reverts to VA at the end of the lease, unless the lease is extended. Public-private development partnerships are made possible under the federal Enhanced-Use Leasing Program, which permits commercial and other activities on VA property that are consistent with the VA mission.
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