KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The University of Missouri - Kansas City broke ground Wednesday on its Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building.
Hundreds gathered at the future site of a $145 million, 160,000-square-foot medical building.
"This is such a historic day at UMKC," UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal said. "Not only because it’s the largest capital project in our history, but also this is the first piece of a mosaic we are going to build out here."
The project, first reported in 2023, includes secured funding from previous state budgets that committed $60 million, multiple private donations, and federal dollars secured by former Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt.
"All the student's here — more has happened in their lifetime to advance healthcare than the rest of history put together," Blunt said. "Health is changing, and changing dramatically."
As medicine advances for UMKC students and faculty, changes in access to healthcare for low income and minority groups is included.
"The records and the data sort out (that) something needs to happen to make sure people who live in the 64130 (zip code) have the same healthcare advantages as other zip codes," said Rev. Eric Williams, with the Calvary Baptist Church. "It’s almost criminal to think where you live dictates your morbidity rates."
Since the HIV epidemic in the 1980s, Williams and his congregation have worked alongside UMKC medical staff.
"We must educate our people, but we also must educate doctor’s coming in," Williams said. "It’s about the community being in the face of physicians and students. As they matriculate through the systems, they can begin to understand what the community looks like."
UMKC's Healthcare Delivery and Innovation Building will be the primary home of Biomedical Engineering and Data Science studies and will evolve with time.
"This whole area will look very different out here," Agrawal said. "Buildings, green spaces, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, a thriving medical district."
UMKC students will have the opportunity to gain clinical hours at the new facility.
"This is going to be an easy location for people to get to that," said Jacey Brewer, a biomedical engineering major. "(It) will provide so many different services that is going to benefit the Kansas City community."
"We’ve seen it come along way. Being able to trust researchers and institutions who are trying to do the best job that they can," Williams said. "They’re rock stars, we need to bless them with our support and our trust.”
The project is expected to complete in 2026.
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KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. Share your story idea with Ryan.