Washington, D.C.-based Children's National Health System will acquire ownership Thursday of nearly 12 acres of the former 110-acre Walter Reed Army Medical Center campus in Bethesda, Md., according to the Washington Business Journal.
There, the pediatric hospital plans to create a hub for medical innovation, where it will have more space for research and innovation projects.
"It has been a bit of a journey. But anything this valuable and this important requires time to achieve," Kurt Newman, MD, CEO of Children's National, said of the deal that was nearly two years in the making. "We want to use this land and the buildings on it to further our research enterprise ... and create a new and expanded hub for innovation and research for children."
The hospital's vision includes taking over the 348,000-square-foot building 54 laboratory research facility, as well as a conference center, auditorium, a former ambulatory clinic and a 341,000-square-foot parking garage.
Children's National Health System hopes to begin construction on the site by the end of 2017 and begin situating researchers there by the end of 2018, according to the report.