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After leasing it for seven years, Wake Forest University Health Sciences has purchased an Innovation Quarter building for $38 million.
A filing with the Forsyth County Register of Deeds shows that WFUHS purchased Building 60 in Innovation Quarter yesterday for $37.965 million. The seller was Wexford Winston-Building 60 LLC, an affiliate of Innovation Quarter’s developer Wexford Science + Technology.
Located at 409 Vine Street, the 0.76-acre building contains a 194,370-square-foot building.
Joe McCloskey, spokesperson for Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, told TBJ that the building currently houses the medical school’s Bowman Gray Center for Medical Education and Wake Forest University’s Wake Downtown campus, with its biomedical sciences and engineering programs.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine has been leasing this space since the building opened in 2016, he added.
Anchored by the medical school, Innovation Quarter – which has revitalized Winston-Salem’s downtown – is spread across 2.1 million square feet of space, much in former tobacco manufacturing plants, and accounted for $1.7 billion in economic impact across the city and Forsyth County last year.
Innovation Quarter is gearing up for the second phase of its development, which is set to be anchored by an eye institute from AHWFB.
Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag, CEO of AHWFB, chief academic officer for Advocate Health and executive vice president of health affairs for WFU spoke briefly on plans for the eye institute at yesterday’s Future of Health Care panel hosted by TBJ. She said that AHWFB has been looking at both new construction and vacated buildings for the institute and that plans will be announced soon.