<p>From the COHE. Nicely done.</p>
<p>Talk about seizing the moment: Two years after Pfizer Inc. announced that it was closing its giant research complex in the University of Michigan's hometown of Ann Arbor, the university approved a deal on Thursday to buy the site for $108-million.</p>
<p>The university plans to use the two million square feet of laboratory and office space to ratchet up its already-healthy research machine. A portion of the space will house some of the 100 new faculty members it is now in the process of hiring in interdisciplinary sciences.</p>
<p>The announcement comes as some of the nation's most prestigious universities are instituting cuts and hiring freezes, and the state of Michigan itself is facing an uncertain economic future because of the precarious financial condition of the Big Three automakers. The contrast did not go unnoticed.</p>
<p>"At this point, when people are feeling a lot of economic pain, the University of Michigan is saying, 'We're investing in ourselves,'" said an ebullient Stephen R. Forrest, vice president for research, in a telephone interview, just hours after the Board of Regents approved the deal. "This is a major opportunity for the University of Michigan to move ahead."</p>
<p>University leaders said the purchase was intended to make the institution even more competitive in the quest for federal and private research support and further establish its leadership in health and science. The deal could create at least 2,000 new jobs for researchers and their support staffs over the next decade, university officials said, nearly as many as were once employed at the site by the pharmaceutical giant. </p>
<p>The university, with a research budget of $875-million, already ranks fifth among all universities in research support, according to statistics compiled by the National Science Foundation. Mr. Forrest said Michigan was looking to move higher, by snaring an even greater share of the federal money available and by increasing the support it gets from private companies. Its industry financing for research is now about $45-million a year.</p>
<p>The move does have risks.</p>
<p>Some academic organizations have warned that the building boom in science facilities over the past two decades could leave some institutions with more space than they can afford to fill, especially now, with the rate of increase for federal spending on research slowing and corporations facing their own financial troubles. Mr. Forrest said the university undertook this purchase with those conditions in mind. </p>
<p>While the flow of funds from the National Institutes of Health and the NSF won't be as abundant as in the past, and many corporations are now cutting back on their spending, he said, some companies still "will be looking for opportunity." </p>
<p>And, he added, "the price was right."</p>
<p>He said having the research space, some of which is in good enough shape that "we could move right in," would give the institution a major advantage as it pursues top scientists. In addition to the hiring the university is doing in interdisciplinary sciences, other arms of the university, including the medical and engineering schools, are adding faculty members. </p>
<p>"We're been hiring very robustly," he said. "I think this will put us in a new dimension."</p>
<p>Most of the money to acquire the 175-acre campus will come from reserves of the University of Michigan Health System; the rest will come from the university's investments. </p>
<p>The university has been weighing plans for the former pharmaceutical site ever since Pfizer announced in January 2007 that it would close it.</p>
<p>Mr. Forrest said the university thought a private company might buy the site and labs, but when economic conditions made it clear that such a deal was not likely to materialize, the university made its move. Michigan doesn't need two million square feet of additional research space right now, he said, but a new building would cost five times as much per square foot to build.</p>
