4 large UAB building projects near completion, grand openings

The UAB campus is in the midst of a construction boom, with at least 10 projects underway.

Four of those projects — including new or renovated homes for the business and nursing schools and campus police — are set to be completed or celebrated with ribbon-cuttings over the next few weeks.

Information regarding the following projects was supplied by UAB Media Relations.

► A $37.5 million building housing the Collat School of Business and Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is nearly complete, and a grand opening is scheduled for Aug. 24. The facility, located on University Boulevard between 12th and 13th streets South, measures about 110,000 square feet. 

The building is designed to encourage students to collaborate, write business plans, start companies and work hands-on with intellectual property owned by UAB. 

At a 2016 groundbreaking, Collat School Dean Eric Jack said the facility could “transform” the business school and help create an “innovative Birmingham.”

► The $32 million expansion and renovation of the UAB School of Nursing on University Boulevard was to be complete in July, with a ribbon-cutting scheduled for Sept. 6. The project adds five floors and another 72,000 square feet of space to the school.

► A grand opening will be Aug. 9 for the recently completed $8.2 million UAB Police Headquarters at 14th Street and 11th Avenue South. The old police building on the site, which was half the size of the new facility, has been demolished to make room for additional parking and green space.

► A ribbon-cutting will be Aug. 30 for new intramural fields at 1100 Fifth Ave. S. as part of the Recstravaganza hosted by Student Affairs. The fields will be home to seven outdoor club sport teams, including rugby and lacrosse, and will create more space for intramural outdoor sports.

In addition, the $3 million ROTC facility, at 828 Eighth Court S., should be open by fall 2018; the $39.5 million College of Arts and Sciences building should be complete in spring 2019; and Proton International at UAB — the first proton cancer therapy facility in Alabama — is expected to open in 2020. Construction is underway on the facility, located on 20th Street South between Fourth and Fifth avenues.