The Fitzsimons Innovation Community (FIC) campus in Aurora has started construction on a 90,000-square-foot facility that will provide research and creation for cell and gene therapy products. The Bioscience 5 facility is the latest project on the 125-acre science and technology development adjacent to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. There are three other facilities on the Fitzsimons property that offer health and life science technologies named Bioscience 1, 2 and 3. Bioscience 5 will provide innovators with additional capabilities beyond its other predecessors. Nearly 70 companies are housed in the three facilities in the bioscience campus. Other medical facilities on the campus include Children’s Hospital Colorado and the new Veterans Affairs hospital.
Fitzsimons Innovation Community
The Fitzsimons Innovation Community started business in 2000. The various bioscience companies are developing and producing medical devices, working in diagnostics and health information technology.
Life science is a booming industry in Colorado and innovators have raised over $700 million to promote research in the latest gene therapy products to cure various cancers and other diseases.
FIC envisioned a biotechnical center that would support and benefit the University of Colorado medical school, hospital, and research facilities. The entire campus, which is on the former Fitzsimons Army base and hospital, is now an economic powerhouse, pumping about $7 billion into the economy and employing nearly 23,000 people, according to a past UCHealth study. The campus has been an economic generator for the city of Aurora, The Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority, the City of Aurora, and the University of Colorado manage the redevelopment of the Fitzsimons army base after it closed in 1999. The building is expected to be completed by mid-2022 by Sanders Construction, the general contractor.