World class "Health Sciences City" is good medicine for business and healthcare.

• Position: A Special Research Report Prepared for Commerce Bank - Statistical Data Included

Visionaries and enterprising business people from all walks of life have collaborated to create a lasting legacy of economic innovation and scientific advancement in Colorado. Today that exciting dynamic continues with the redevelopment of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora.

This is no ordinary commercial undertaking. Neither is it a routine, in-fill construction project. The new Fitzsimons is an integrated, synergistic redevelopment that includes the University of Colorado Health Science Center's schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and graduate school, cutting-edge research laboratories, critical-care clinics and emerging biotech firms. In fact, the redevelopment of Fitzsimons' 577 acres near Colfax and Interstate 225 is the largest medically related redevelopment project in the United States and was recently profiled in the Washington Post as a model project for creating new uses at closed military installations.

Fitzsimons is breaking new ground in more ways than one. For the first time in modern American history, a major medical school is building a whole new campus. The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) will occupy 217 acres at the former Army medical site when first-phase construction is completed in 2010.

The excitement isn't limited to the creation of a comprehensive health sciences center. Through its economic development partnership, Fitzsimons is poised to impact commerce and industry throughout Colorado.

"This is the most important economic development project going on in the state, particularly when you consider that there is going to be an increased emphasis on the entire biotech industry for the next 10 to 20 years," said Dr. Elizabeth Hoffman, president of the University of Colorado.

"City" to Employ 29,000

Although much of the current development and construction activity -- more than $600 million in progress -- is driven by the university and its affiliated University of Colorado Hospital, the overall goal is to integrate private businesses and various research entities with the university, the hospital and its outpatient services. The outcome? A "Health Sciences City" of international acclaim, which will include Colorado Bioscience Park Aurora catering to emerging businesses in the biotech industry. Bioscience Park Center is completed and occupied by 17 start-up companies and related entities. Bioscience East is scheduled to open by the end of 2001, with a third structure...