April 16, 2024

SDSU will take a big step forward with its Sioux Falls presence as the university prepares to open a new center on Minnesota Avenue dedicated to health sciences.

It will be on the northeast corner of 33rd Street and Minnesota Avenue in a building Avera Health purchased from Hy-Vee Inc. in 2008.

As fate would have it, SDSU president Barry Dunn’s son used to work in that grocery store before its move a few blocks south, so he was familiar with the building when he considered future options for the university.

SDSU’s nursing program in Sioux Falls, located at Southeast Technical College, needed additional space, and its pharmacy program at the former University Center also needed a new home as that property transitioned fully to USD.

“When you have two premium programs in someone else’s space, that’s not ideal to promote how good they are and how successful they are,” Dunn said. “So it was just very pragmatically looking around to see if we could find a better home for them.”

The Avera building, which houses its home medical equipment store, fits the bill on several levels. Not only does Minnesota Avenue provide increased visibility, but the location will put students right between Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center and Sanford Health USD Medical Center, and not far from other clinics and the Avera on Louise campus.

Dunn approached Avera leadership a couple of years ago, “and they were very gracious to entertain my ideas and … were very, very helpful, and what a tremendous gift they have given us, and we’re very excited.”

The total amount of the gift isn’t being released at this point but will include the transfer of the building to the SDSU Foundation in a couple of weeks and improvements inside.

“We have to be involved in developing our workforce, or we’re going to be woefully short if we don’t,” said Dave Flicek, chief operating officer of Avera Health.

“As we were hatching the idea, it really made a lot of sense to say how can we allow you to have that building for lab, nursing, the simulation center and everything associated with those degrees. This will be a health sciences center for SDSU in the middle of the city, which hopefully can attract and retain future students.”

The 44,359-square-foot building will bring pharmacy, nursing, respiratory therapy, medical lab science and public health students under one roof, while also offering what Flicek calls a health science student union where students can spend time between clinical locations.

University officials say more than 400 students will be educated and trained in the new facility annually. That includes more than 150 students from the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions and 240 students within the College of Nursing. Of those, 160 will be pursuing undergraduate degrees; an additional 80 are in the graduate program.

The new SDSU Metro Center will include classrooms, skills labs for nursing, research space for pharmacy, and simulation labs and student study areas serving all majors.

The SDSU College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions has leased a portion of the building since last fall. Renovation on the future SDSU Metro Center, containing the Avera health education center for these students, will begin this summer and continue through 2025.

“They love it, and once we get it fully built out, it will be even better,” Dunn said. “It’s basically just a big shell, which allows us to remodel very efficiently and affordably, and that’s a huge advantage for us.”

The need is great, Avera leaders said. The post-pandemic workforce shift that health care experienced, combined with the population growth of Sioux Falls, is driving the need to continually attract and retain more employees.

“Whether we’re on the health care delivery side or the education side or some combination thereof, how we think about it and how we operationalize and how we collaborate has changed,” said Dr. Ron Place, president and CEO of Avera McKennan.

“This is a physical representation of that change in our systems and our relationship.”

Avera Home Medical Equipment will move to another Avera building at 3720 W. 69th St.

The Sioux Falls donation is a continuation of a long working relationship between Avera Health and SDSU. Avera provided the lead gift for the Avera Health and Science Center that opened on the SDSU campus in 2010. That facility includes 97,000 square feet of teaching, laboratory and office space, and 48,600 square feet of research laboratory space.

“For Avera, SDSU provides the greatest number of nurses and pharmacists,” Place said. “They are our No. 1 generator of workforce.”

Avera also supports scholarships and sponsorships for students, including support of nursing, medical lab science and other health care fields, as well as the Wokini Initiative, which provides opportunities for Native American students.