Article by Michelle Hines
Opportunity Greensboro wants to locate the Downtown University Campus at South Elm and Lee streets as a cornerstone of redevelopment in the corridor.
The organization — a partnership between area businesses, city leaders and local universities — announced the preferred location for the shared campus Tuesday. The vacant land, owned by the City of Greensboro, is bound by South Elm, East Lee and Arlington streets, and backs up to a planned section of the Downtown Greenway.
Chancellor Linda P. Brady called the Downtown University Campus “an amazing collaboration.” “This site has been waiting for something to happen,” she said after the press conference. “It needed this kind of project to bring change.”
UNCG will play a large role in the project. From the outset, the School of Nursing will provide education and training for nurses at the new facility, which will house the school’s new Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program, scheduled to launch in Fall 2015.
Brady stood alongside N.C. A&T Chancellor Harold Martin, GTCC President Randy Parker and Cone Health CEO Tim Rice at Tuesday’s news conference to speak about the collaborative project, its significance for their respective institutions and its importance for the city as a whole.
This first building at the site will cost about $40 million. Completion is projected for summer 2016. Funds would come from lease fees, the city, corporate gifts and grants.
A current building plan includes a 105,000-square-foot facility that reaches to four floors and includes shared classrooms, labs, an auditorium, seminar and meeting rooms, a student support center and office space.
Brady said the option to lease space and share costs is essential for UNCG and other public universities given the current budgetary climate.
Robin Remsburg, dean of the UNCG School of Nursing, said the DNP program will serve about 150 students. The DNP is emerging as a preferred degree in the field, providing experience and training beyond the masters in nursing, she said.
Other plans call for the School of Nursing to serve registered nurses working on the Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing. Many of those nurses would be Cone Health employees.
Full story at UNCG Now
Photography by Chris English
