JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. — Binghamton University will use a $30 million Upstate Revitalization Initiative (URI) grant to finalize the nursing school building and other projects on its Health Sciences Campus in Johnson City.
The nursing school will be housed in a former Endicott-Johnson shoe-box factory, Empire State Development (ESD) said in a Friday news release. It’ll be co-located with Binghamton’s new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The new round of funding will also allow Binghamton University to “acquire and develop” private industry co-location space in a “historic” building and support the creation of an eldercare facility.
“The state support to date in our Health Sciences Campus in Johnson City has already led to an incredible return on investment,” Harvey Stenger, president of Binghamton University, contended in the ESD release. “This latest award to help Binghamton University finish the new campus will go a long way in transforming Johnson City’s economy. The $30 million will allow us to build, rehabilitate and equip buildings on our Health Sciences Campus and get us across the finish line.”
The state awarded the Southern Tier $500 million through the URI, which Gov. Cuomo announced in December 2015.
Friday’s announcement complements “Southern Tier Soaring,” the region’s economic-development blueprint.
About the Health Sciences Campus
The initial anchor for the Johnson City campus, the new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, opened last fall. Constructed with $60 million in state funding, the school is creating more than 100 jobs and will include about 390 students “at full enrollment.”
It’ll have an annual regional economic impact of about $100 million, per the ESD news release.
The final phase of this project will complete the school’s Health Sciences Campus in the “formerly blighted urban core” of Johnson City, ESD said. Binghamton University is also making improvements to its science buildings on campus supporting chemistry, physics, biological sciences, and psychology, the agency added.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com