UMass Medical School recently acquired 27 acres of land from the Worcester Business Development Corporation (WBDC) to construct a 1,300-space parking garage for use by faculty, staff and students in support of the development of the new $330 million Albert Sherman Center. The land abuts Plantation Street, approximately one-third of a mile from the entrance to the Worcester campus, and is adjacent to the Worcester Biotechnology Research Park.

WBDC, a private, nonprofit business organization with a public mission to serve the economic development of Worcester and the region, acquired the land, plus an additional five acres, in a transaction with the state’s Department of Capital and Asset Management .

The WBDC will use the remaining five acres of the property for a 100,000-square-foot facility for medical offices and biomedical research. An extensive planning and design process will ensure that the future building will complement the Medical School’s garage. The WBDC also retains the development rights to an additional development site on the property, which allows for the option of an additional 62,000 square feet of development and approximately 180 surface parking spaces.

The land is the final parcel of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Park, which the WBDC developed in the 1980s and 1990s.

When it opens in the fall of 2012, the Albert Sherman Center, a 500,000-square-foot research and educational facility, will contain laboratory space for more than 100 researchers and education and support space for the growing academic community at UMMS.

UMMS will begin site preparation for the new parking structure in the spring of 2011; construction is estimated to take approximately 18 months.

Related Links: 

Sherman Center website
Steel time at the Albert Sherman Center