INDIANAPOLIS — Duke Realty has broken ground on the 274,000-square-foot Fifth Third Faculty Office Building, located at the planned 37-acre, $754 million Eskenazi Health campus in downtown Indianapolis.
The 5-story building will house support functions for Wishard Health Services, including office space for administrative staff and Indiana University School of Medicine faculty physicians who will practice at the campus. Additionally, it will be used as workspace for research and various academic support programs.
Completion of the Fifth Third building is slated for December 2013. St. Louis-based HOK Group and Indianapolis-based BSA LifeStructures are the architects for the project. Duke Realty is the construction and property manager.
Along with an 11-story hospital tower and a planned ambulatory care building, the Fifth Third building will enable Eskenazi Health’s physicians and staff to be consolidated on one 1.2 million-square-foot campus. Duke Realty and Health and Hospital Corp. of Marion County (HHC), which operates the Wishard system, will jointly own the Fifth Third building and HHC will lease the property. Indianapolis-based Browning Investments also played a key role during the early stages of the Fifth Third project.
Upon full completion, the new campus is expected to receive LEED Silver certification, making it the first hospital in Indiana to be certified silver or higher. The complex will serve more patients in one-third less space than the previous facilities and will use half the amount of energy with 12 percent lower operating costs.
“We are pleased with our unique public-private partnership with Duke Realty that will result in a centralized, state-of-the-art faculty facility built for staff and physician convenience and increased efficiency,” said Dr. Lisa E. Harris, CEO and medical director of Wishard Health Services, in a statement.
“Duke Realty worked hard to develop a creative, flexible solution that meets our needs,” Harris continued. “The Fifth Third Faculty Office Building, which will be connected to our newly built hospital, will enable us to continue our longstanding commitment to provide the highest-quality healthcare to Indianapolis-area residents.”
— Savannah Duncan