Posted on April 26, 2002 at 9:05 a.m.

WHAT:

The official groundbreaking ceremony for the UAB Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building. The building will officially be named the Richard C. and Annette N. Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building

WHEN/WHERE:

Ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on April 29 on the building site at 1825 University Boulevard, site of the current Mortimer Jordan Hall.

WHO:

The Honorable Richard Shelby, U.S. Senate; The Honorable Spencer Bachus, U.S. House of Representatives; Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid; County Commission President Gary White; Mr. Dave Adkisson, Birmingham-area Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Malcolm Portera, Chancellor of the University of Alabama System; Dr. W. Ann Reynolds, President of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

BACKGROUND:

The 11-story, 340,000 gross square feet building initially will house three programs — autoimmunity and immunobiology, brain injury and disease research and biomedical and bone matrix research. It will increase by approximately 25 percent the amount of research space for the university. We anticipate that the additional research space will enable our faculty to attract an additional $100 million in extramural funding. With this growth, we anticipate at least 1,000 new jobs for Birmingham.

The building is the result of a collaboration among Local, state, federal governmental entities. Sen. Richard Shelby has been instrumental in helping UAB secure $27.5 million in federal money for the construction of the building. He has stated that he hopes to bring that total to $50 million. The State of Alabama has designated $25 million to the project. The City of Birmingham and Jefferson County each have pledged $5 million, with the County agreeing to explore another $5 million contribution in the future.