A Blueprint: For a 21st Century Fitzsimons.

• Position: A Special Research Report Prepared for Commerce Bank - University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, University of Colorado Hospital and the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority - Brief Article

Three major entities are collaborating to make the new Fitzsimons one of the most unique public-private partnerships in the nation. They include the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC), the University of Colorado Hospital and the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority.

The UCHSC funds and oversees the programs and buildings related to health education and research, and the hospital provides the health care delivery component of the academic medical center structure. Meanwhile, the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority coordinates the development of Colorado Bioscience Park Aurora, which provides specially designed office and lab space to emerging bioscience companies, and also will offer land for those companies to expand. In addition the FRA will manage the development of several commercial and residential sites on the property.

Here's an overview of the new Fitzsimons:

The original 11-story Fitzsimons Hospital (Building 500) is being fully renovated into a wired, interactive administrative center.

The Anschutz Centers for Advanced Medicine, which opened in late 2000, are currently the hub of outpatient care at the UCHSC and include the Anschutz Outpatient Pavilion and the Cancer Pavilion, the only National Cancer Institute designated cancer center within a 500-mile radius. Other clinical services include internal and family medicine, outpatient surgery and women's health services.

The Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute, financed in part by a generous donation from the Lions Clubs of Colorado and Wyoming, provides the latest in specialty and outpatient ophthalmology care, specialty training, and research. During the Lions Club 2000/2001 fiscal year ended June 30, 2001, its 43 eye banks provided nearly 20,000 corneas for transplants worldwide.

The Anschutz Inpatient Pavilion is under way with a projected first-phase completion date of December 2003.

The Colorado Bioscience Park Aurora opened with a 60,000-square-foot incubator building that currently houses 17 tenants. Another building will open before Jan. 2002, with a third structure set for construction in the near future. The first...