LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center can celebrate its 20th anniversary with the anticipated summer groundbreaking for its $28 million new clinical research building.

The money was obtained piecemeal over time in a “frustrating” process, but Pennington Executive Director Claude Bouchard said he is confident construction will finally begin as soon as June.
“We’re very, very pleased,” Bouchard said. “All indications are that it will happen.”

Last year’s legislative session provided $21 million, consisting of $5 million in cash and $16 million in state construction dollars.
Gov. Bobby Jindal’s second special legislative session in March put Pennington over the top with $50 million — $7 million of which is reserved for the clinical research center.

The Pennington health research center focuses on issues ranging from obesity and diabetes prevention to stem-cell and genetics research to fight cancer.
Bill Silvia, Pennington chief financial officer, said the only major hurdle remaining is for the state to bid the project out and start construction on the four-floor, 90,000-square-foot facility.

Jerry Jones, the state’s director of facility planning, said bidding should be in May, meaning that construction could begin as early as late June.
Clinical research is what allows Pennington scientists to work directly with people and demonstrate the effectiveness of treatments, essentially bringing the science to life, Bouchard said. The new construction is essential to keep Pennington at the leading edge worldwide, he said.

The planned project should bring about 300 new jobs to Pennington, which consists of a 600,000-square-foot center on a 237-acre site along Perkins Road. The center employs more than 600 doctors, scientists and staff, including 70 faculty.

But the clinical research building is just the beginning of Pennington’s planned rapid growth, Bouchard said.
As soon as the clinical building is complete, Pennington will build an adjoining $12 million imaging center paid for out of the $50 million from the March special session, Bouchard said.

“That will increase tremendously our ability to do very sophisticated clinical studies,” Bouchard said, with much more human tissue analysis without being invasive.

Then Pennington will begin a complete $50 million renovation and modernization of its existing clinical building, he said. That includes adding much more modern instrumentation and more inpatient beds.

Everything should be completed by mid-2011, Bouchard said.
“Overall, this is a pretty exciting expansion that brings us to a level unsurpassed in this state and competitive with the very best in the nation,” he said.
The clinical research building is the first time Pennington has relied on the state for construction funding.

Louisiana oil magnate C.B. “Doc” Pennington, who died in 1997 at age 97, donated $125 million in 1980 to start the center and most of the growth has relied on those dollars.

But unlike most other LSU campuses, Pennington does not get student fees and cannot rely on generous alumni because it enrolls no students.
Bouchard had hoped to fund the clinical research facility with excess funds from a 2004 basic science building expansion. But costs for that project ran significantly over budget and left Pennington with few options but to ask for state aid.

“Everything on Pennington was built with money from our foundation, and it was easier that way,” Bouchard said.
“Now, we have to learn to work with the state,” he said. “It’s a very different environment.”


Source: The Advocate, JORDAN BLUM