By ANN HINCH

Associate Editor

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Even as Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine (PVM) administrators and instructors look for construction to begin on a $35 million equine hospital and paddocks facility this fall, they’re still in a holding pattern on seeing the second, larger phase of a new Veterinary Teaching Hospital complex take shape.

In August 2017, the university’s Board of Trustees gave their stamp of approval to breaking ground for the equine facility (estimated at 76,000 square feet but as it is still in design phase, not yet finalized), to be financed by $30 million in university reserve funding and $5 million from donor gifts – which the college is still seeking to complete.

“Naming opportunities abound” for several areas of the incoming equine hospital, according to Dr. Sandra San Miguel, PVM associate dean for engagement who also sits on the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. She said it with a grin at the January BOAH meeting, but with all seriousness – willing donors are being asked to contact PVM’s Advancement Office at 765-494-6304 or pvmgiving@prf.org

Construction on the equine facility – Phase 1 – should be completed in 2020. It will be located east of the Lynn Hall veterinary complex in space made by demolishing Freehafer Hall on South Grant Street, and extending Williams Street. The architecture firm is Foil-Wyatt Architects and Planners, and the construction management firm is Turner Construction Co.

The $52 million Phase 2, as yet unapproved and size undetermined, will include two facilities, for small animals and food animals.

PVM Dean Dr. Willie Reed said he has been working on this hospital project for 11 years, including trying to persuade trustees and university presidents to rank it for approval. Even though the equine facility is receiving no tax dollars from the state, the General Assembly had to also sign off on it.

Parts of the existing veterinary hospital complex – which includes only two facilities, for large and small animals – are a century old, Reed explained, and even the newer Lynn Hall is almost six decades old. It has had to undergo multiple rounds of refurbishing to adjust to new technology and increased enrollment.

He said the PVM program takes on about 84 new DVM students each year, as well as a few equine medicine and surgery specialists and 30 vet-tech students.

The equine hospital will include space for general and orthopedic surgery, diagnostic imaging, exam rooms, wards for surgery, intensive care and reproductive systems and teaching space. Reed said the push to separate equines and other large animals is not just to create more space for each – for instance, tech such as MRI and CT scans are used frequently for horses now – but to reduce the potential for spread of infectious diseases.

And, horses are economically important to Indiana. According to a 2011 study from the Equine Business Management Program at Purdue University Calumet (believed to be the latest data available), in 2010 the state’s horse-related businesses contributed nearly $2.1 billion to the Indiana economy. In 2009, combined casino racetracks in Anderson and Shelbyville contributed more than $319 million alone.

San Miguel said the PVM hopes to find out next year if Purdue and the state will approve the Phase 2 facilities. That will likely require some taxpayer funding in addition to university and donor dollars. “The fundraising capacity is not great enough for (the entirety of) a $52 million project,” Reed said of donations.

If everything were to go smoothly and Phase 2 were green-lighted in 2019, San Miguel said ground could be broken for those buildings the following year, with completion as soon as 2022. Once all the construction is done, she said old facilities will be demolished in stages to replace labs and classrooms.

“The state (legislature) doesn’t always pick the No. 1 (project) that Purdue ranks,” she noted – again, presuming the university does put Phase 2 forth that prominently, that soon. “But we’d really like to be No. 1.”

“This is something that has been needed for a long time,” Reed said of upgrading the hospital complex.

There are about 30 veterinary schools in the country, and in order to continue attracting the best faculty and students and performing advanced research, he explained facilities need to keep pace with progress. It is his estimate that the new hospital complex could last for at least 40 years.

“Purdue builds really solid facilities, unless there’s some real change in technologies,” he noted, saying of the projected new facilities, “I think it (will pay) for itself many times.”