Medical Education and Research Institute purchases adjacent property to create more space for expanded research areas - Memphis Business Journal:

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The building at 1831 Madison has been vacanf for nearlyeight years. MERI is now preparingg the old facility for employee parking andfor Long-term plans for the building and its lot have not been But space needs at the 44 Monrod building are evident and “we’re at kind of a tilt internallt right now.” “We can’t fit one more thing in says MERI executive directorf Elizabeth Ostric. “We want to remain a state-of-the-arft training facility so that may mean we place some of our stafff intothe (Madison) building or a new building.
” Ostric and her staftf will decide whether or not to builxd a new facility on the site this summetr and present their decisions to the MERI board this fall. Nothing new is expectecd on the siteanytime soon. In the near however, moving administrative functions to the Madison buildingv would allow the research facility to dedicate more of its squared footage to laboratory andmeeting “This gives us options for growth as there are othedr things out there we are looking at to supporgt the medical community,” says Diana Kelly, MERI’s manager of institutiona development.
“If we do we just have to create more MERI officials just wrapped upa year-long expansion projectr that brought 2,000 additional squarr feet for morgue and storage space. The facility’s auditoriumn was expanded from 60 seatsto 85. A dinin g facility was converted to lab spacw so MERI can now conduct two large classee ata time. Also, the second-flood lab has been outfittee with up-to-date audio/visual equipment that allows traineezs and researchers to watcbh medical procedures from aroundthe globe.
director Beth Flanagan says MERI is an amazingb asset toMemphis “that no one knows While practicing surgical procedures and techniques on fresh, frozen cadavers may not be Flanagan says MERI’s economic impacr is unmistakable. The dozens of executive-level doctor s and professionals the facility brings in weeklyg translates to hotel stays and meals at finer establishments, she “Also, if we’re going to stay competitive (in the life scienced industry) and do the research and developmeng piece, we have to have these guys,” she says. “Idf you only think about and , you’vd got to have (MERI).
’ Ostric says MERI’s growth is two yearz ahead of a level predicted in an economic impacft study threeyears ago. The study projected MERI’s impacr to be $34 million by now, although Ostric says it is closerrto $41 million. In five years, she says, it is expecteed to account for anannual $54 millionj economic impact to the Memphis But MERI has not been immune to the globakl recession. The organization has expandedfits three-year, $10 million capital campaign that began in 2007 by anothefr year. “We realize a lot of our donore are cutting back right now or extending theirt time frameson giving,” says “So the capital is certainly a littl e slower right now.
” Also, demand for education servicesw has not waned, but it has not growhn as quickly as predicted, Ostric says. MERI brought in $7.4 milliom in 2007, according to its most recently fileetax documents.