FSU Health Opens Its New Research Building in Tallahassee and Names It for Wilton Simpson
The 137,000-square-foot Wilton Simpson FSU Health Research and Collaboration Building brings a family medicine practice serving more than 12,000 patients a year, simulation training and research labs together on the Tallahassee Memorial campus.
Florida State University has opened the largest addition yet to its growing health enterprise in Tallahassee. FSU President Richard McCullough and Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson cut the ribbon Oct. 30 on the new FSU Health Research and Collaboration Building, and the university announced the 137,000-square-foot facility will carry Simpson's name.
The FSU Board of Trustees voted that morning to name the facility the Wilton Simpson FSU Health Research and Collaboration Building. As Florida Senate president in 2022, Simpson championed the project, helping secure $125 million in construction funding and an additional $20 million in recurring funding for FSU and its health enterprise, according to the university.
The $137.5 million building sits on the FSU Health Tallahassee Memorial Hospital campus and brings clinicians, researchers, students and community partners under one roof. Its first floor houses the FSU Family Medicine Residency practice, which serves more than 12,000 patients annually, along with space for community education and professional training. The second floor features simulation spaces that replicate operating rooms, hospital rooms and a fully equipped one-bedroom apartment, where students and residents train with standardized patients and virtual-reality technology.
The third and fourth floors are dedicated to biomedical, clinical and translational research, with wet labs for tissue culture, biobanking and gene-editing technologies, and exam and procedure rooms intended to move discoveries into patient care. The facility will accommodate more than 150 researchers, is expected to attract $40 million in grant funding annually, and is projected to generate more than $217 million in annual economic impact while supporting more than 350 permanent jobs, according to FSU.
More than 250 people attended the ribbon-cutting, including trustees, university and hospital officials, and government, business and community leaders. The opening comes weeks after FSU and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare finalized agreements in late September establishing a long-term framework for FSU Health, covering patient care, medical education and research at FSU Health Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and a future FSU Health hospital in Panama City Beach expected to open in 2028.
