TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State University opened a four-story medical research and training building Friday on the campus of FSU Health Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and named it for state Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
University trustees voted that morning to put his name on the FSU Health Research and Collaboration Building. Simpson, who led the Florida Senate in 2022, helped steer $125 million for construction plus $20 million a year in recurring money to FSU and its health enterprise.
The $137.5 million, 137,000-square-foot building puts patient care, research and training in one place. On the first floor, the FSU Family Medicine Residency practice expects to see more than 12,000 patients a year. One level up are simulation rooms built to look like operating suites, hospital rooms and a one-bedroom apartment, where students and residents will practice with standardized patients and virtual reality.
Research labs fill the top two floors, with space for gene editing, biobanking and tissue culture work. The university expects more than 150 researchers to work there and the building to draw $40 million a year in grants.
FSU projects the building will produce more than $217 million in economic impact each year and support more than 350 permanent jobs. President Richard McCullough said it should lead to services that local patients now have to leave town to get, and that researchers will move in as soon as possible.
Over 250 guests came to the dedication. The opening follows agreements FSU and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare signed in late September that set the long-term structure for FSU Health, including a planned Panama City Beach hospital under the FSU Health name that should open in 2028.
Filed under: Tallahassee FL Health News
