Construction to begin on new MSU, Henry Ford Health biomedical research building in Detroit

Construction is expected to start next month on a 335,000-square-foot research building in Detroit's New Center Center that will become Michigan State University's largest biomedical facility and part of Henry Ford Health's new $3 billion expansion.

The building, which will cost approximately $335 million to build, is part of a partnership between the university and Henry Ford Health. It will be built at Amsterdam Street and 3rd Avenue, expanding MSU's footprint in Detroit, according to the university. It should be finished by 2027. A parking lot owned by Henry Ford Health is now located at the site.

The MSU Board of Trustees will vote Friday on authorizing a ground lease with Henry Ford Health for land on which the building will sit. It also will authorize a lease with a medical research organization for one floor of the facility.

The building, designed by ZGF Architects, will eventually accommodate 84 principal investigator teams, along with a large first floor core lab that will include an imaging suite. Research will focus on cancer, neuroscience, immunology, and infectious diseases, with a particular interest in health inequities and disparities, according to details from MSU.

An entire floor of the building will likely house the new Nick Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Research Institute, funded by the Gilbert Family Foundation. Named after the late son of Detroit investor Dan Gilbert, it will focus research for neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic condition that cause non-cancerous tumors to grow along nerves in the skin, brain and other parts of the body. Nick died last year from the condition. He was 26.

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In February last year, Henry Ford Health unveiled its plans to build a new hospital tower along with a research facility with MSU. It plans to tear down the Health Alliance Plan headquarters and construct a $1.8 billion hospital across the street from its current facility.

The hospitals and other facilities would be connected through a series of bridges, underground tunnels and walkway green space.

The project also will include a new services building to be built by Henry Ford Health, a parking garage and three mixed-use, mixed-income residential buildings to be constructed by Palace Sports & Entertainment.

In 2021, MSU and Henry Ford Health announced a 30-year partnership that would include establishing a regional campus within the existing Henry Ford's Detroit campus footprint. At the time, they announced plans to create a joint research institute that would be dedicated to research and academic activities with a network of scientists, academicians and health care practitioners.

“We have long believed that strong partnerships are foundational to helping us accomplish more than we could do ourselves,” said Wright L. Lassiter III, who was Henry Ford Health System's president and CEO at the time the partnership was announced. "For us that meant finding a strong academic partner with a shared mission of service to our communities and we are so excited to have reached that major milestone."