Washington State University is envisioning a new medical training facility at the university’s Spokane campus, says Eric Smith, director of facilities and capital projects at WSU in Spokane.

The university’s Team Health Education building will provide simulation and clinical research spaces for medical, pharmacy, and nursing students and clinical practitioners, says Smith.

Preliminary plans for the new campus building call for a 60,000-square-foot building footprint, with the structure to be under five stories tall.

The Team Health Education building will be funded by Washington state and private donors, he says.

“We’ve got $7 million from the state at this point in time to start the project,” Smith says.

WSU’s recent request for qualifications states funding will be sought for the 2025-2027 biennium for the final design and construction of the facility.

“We’re guessing it’ll be $50 million to $60 million by the time we’re all said and done, but it could be more,” says Smith.

The project originally was envisioned as part of the Biomedical and Health Sciences Building, but those facility plans were split into three smaller phases to be housed in different facilities, says Smith.

There are two locations on the WSU Spokane campus where the Team Health Education building could be located, he says. One option is to build on an existing parking lot, and another option is to demolish a facility-operations building and construct the new facility on that site.

Eight proposals have been received by design-build teams vying to work on the project, and Smith says WSU will announce the final design-build team in late October.

Site preparation could start next spring or summer, and if all goes to plan, construction is to be completed in May 2027, he says.