With the Statehouse adjourned for 2017, S.C. legislators left open-ended a request for state funding to support a relocation of the School of Medicine to a development on North Bull Street. Speaking for the university, associate director of public relations Jeff Stensland said officials "fully anticipate a push next year" for a bill that will support the project's financing.
In preparation for the 2017-18 fiscal year, USC submitted a pair of requests to the S.C. General Assembly for one-time appropriations, one for $25 million for renovation of the vacant law school building on Main Street and one for $50 million for the medical school relocation. A proposed bill unveiled by the S.C. House Ways and Means Committee in late March included only the law school project, keeping with a statement from Rep. Brian White (R-Anderson) that the bill would not pay for any new university construction projects. On May 11, the General Assembly adjourned its 16th consecutive session without passing a bond bill benefiting higher education.
The State reported last week that USC received permission from the State Fiscal Accountability Authority to borrow up to $45 million to go through with renovation of the vacant Main Street law campus.
As the current School of Medicine campus is located on the grounds of the Dorn VA Medical Center on Garners Ferry Road, USC holds an agreement with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to pay only $1 in annual rent. But when the lease expires in 2030, Stensland said, the property will return to market value.
In a January op-ed for The State, USC President Harris Pastides noted that expiration of the lease would stick USC with exorbitant payments for facilities that "no longer meet the needs of students." In the piece, Pastides noted that the building in which the School of Medicine currently resides pre-dates the flu shot and only comes after penicillin by four years.
"So when we say the buildings are historic," Pastides wrote, "that's exactly what we mean."
The 2017-18 budget request outlining plans for the new facilities stated that the current property requires $75 million in renovations, approximately $220 per square foot, to keep annual maintenance costs from ballooning to $8 million within the next decade. Given the age of the facility, another $75 million could be necessary for complete system overhauls in the years to come.
The request described plans for an $80 million medical teaching facility and a $120 million building for School of Medicine basic sciences, university health sciences research and parking. The request also forecasts the creation of 5,500 new jobs and an annual economic impact estimated at $180 million coinciding with the facilities' construction. Regarding the price tag of $200 million, the state funding requested for 2017-18 would have accounted for only one quarter of the project.
"[I]t's important to note that the bond bill doesn't equate to state approval for specific projects, but does provide financing for them," Stensland said via email correspondence. "So failure of the bill to pass does not mean the project itself was rejected, only we can't rely on these additional resources."
Though the request states that both facilities could be completed by 2023, Stensland said a timeline for the projects is still to be determined as the search for funding continues.