Oklahomans, who offer help, hope and healing to others through voluntary blood donations to the Oklahoma Blood Institute (OBI), will soon have a new place to give. OBI leadership held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the expansion of the organization’s headquarters. The building, to be built on the northwest corner of NE 8th and Lincoln Blvd. in Oklahoma City, represents a new era in OBI’s 31-year history.
The three-story, 47,493 square-foot building will house a new donor center, designed with the comfort of donors in mind. It will include windows throughout the space and a more inviting environment than the current headquarters’ donor center, according to John Armitage, M.D., president and CEO of Oklahoma Blood Institute. The building will also feature a 2,500-square-foot conference center and approximately 16,000 square feet of space available for lease by outside organizations.
“Once this donor center is open, OBI will be able to increase the number of blood donors who come to this center by six percent each year for the next five years,” said Armitage.
He added, “We are very excited about the new blood center and the potential it gives Oklahomans to conveniently and comfortably help others who need blood just to live another day. The current donor center, housed in the adjacent Sylvan N. Goldman building, will be transformed to enable us to conduct more research and expand our testing capabilities.”
The 2.5-acre site was purchased from the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority in 2003. Designed by HSE Architecture, the building will feature a style similar to the Goldman building and a glass enclosed two-story entry that extends into a lobby and atrium.
Timberlake Construction, construction manager, has slated the $12 million project to be complete October 2009. Developer Wiggins Properties is coordinating marketing efforts for the building’s leasable space located on the prime, Oklahoma Health Center campus.
“As the sole supplier of blood products to every metro-Oklahoma City area hospital and most other medical facilities across the state, OBI continues to experience strong growth,” said Gerald Marshall, chairman of the OBI board of directors. “This new building will allow OBI to keep pace with Oklahoma’s growing healthcare and medical research sectors.”