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Ohio State University Plans to Develop Health-Sciences Campus in Dublin

Posted on: Sunday, 11 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

Sep. 9--Ohio State University plans to develop a health-sciences campus in Dublin to profit from its medical research and provide outpatient services.

Dublin has donated 100 acres of land at its 1,500-acre Central Ohio Innovation Center to University Medical Center Partners, a nonprofit organization that will develop business from the research.

Exactly what UMC Partners will develop at the Ohio State University Health & Innovation Center and when it will take shape haven't been determined, said Dr. Fred Sanfilippo, chief executive of OSU Medical Center.

"We are hopeful (that) over the next few months, we will be finalizing a number of plans of what may go out there,'' Sanfilippo said.

The deal must be approved by Dublin City Council, which will take up the proposal Sept. 19. Development Director Dana McDaniel said Dublin has proposed donating the land to Ohio State as part of a wider incentive package that would include performance-based tax breaks.

It also would include $25 million worth of infrastructure improvements around the park, to be completed by the fall 2008. An expansion of the interchange at Rts. 161 and 33 is part of the plan.

The Dublin park is being designed by O'Brien/Atkins Associates, the architects of North Carolina's Research Triangle.

"We really believe that this project will serve as a good nucleus to the Central Ohio Innovation Center and getting research in there with a major university,'' McDaniel said.

Sanfilippo said Ohio State's presence in Dublin was a factor in the park's location. OSU operates Stoneridge Medical Center and Stoneridge Internal Medicine clinic in Dublin southwest of the intersection of Rt. 161 and Sawmill Road.

So, too, was the free property.

"The contribution of land was important, (as was) being a critical part of a larger innovation park,'' Sanfilippo said. '' It's possible that OSU could move its services in Dublin to the new location.

"At the end of the month, when we're going to bring the (issue) to the (OSU) Board of Trustees, then we'll get a better idea of what makes sense,'' Sanfilippo said.

UMC Partners is a true start-up organization. Its purpose is to develop business for OSU medical research. It's being led by Jeffrey Wilkins, who co-founded CompuServe and is former CEO of Metatec International, which was based in Dublin. Its chairman is Robert Massie, chief executive of Chemical Abstracts Service.

Wilkins said one of his main roles will be to raise capital, a task that would be made easier with the Dublin acreage on the company's books. UMC Partners has one for-profit subsidiary: Prologue Research International, a company formed by former OSU employees to manage clinical trials in oncology.

The Dublin development will continue the expansion of the university's medical services. Last year, it opened a heart hospital, and it continues to expand outpatient services in central Ohio.

In December 2006, OSU is expected to complete a 10-story biomedical research tower that will become the largest research building on campus, OSU Medical Center spokeswoman Sue Jablonski said.

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Source: The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

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