The University of New England has broken ground on its Portland Campus’s Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences.
The project’s projected cost is $93 million. It is made possible by a gift of $30 million from the Harold Alfond Foundation — the largest gift in the university’s history. Another $5 million was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in federal appropriations.
The current plans call for the new facility to be 110,000 square feet. The project is expected to be completed in time for the 2024–25 school year.
“Construction of this new building will allow us to admit more medical students each year, with state-of-the-art learning spaces where those students will get hands-on clinical experience and have the opportunity to learn alongside their peers in other health programs,” said UNE President James Herbert. “When it is completed, it will be transformative for UNE and transformative for the study and practice of medicine in Maine.”
The project will relocate the university’s College of Osteopathic Medicine from Biddeford, creating an integrated health sciences campus in a custom-built, state-of-the-art facility in Portland.
The move consolidates all health professions programs on the Portland campus — including the nursing program, dental school, pharmacy school, occupational therapy and related professional training, now with the incoming College of Osteopathic Medicine.
UNE has Maine’s only medical college and only dental college, as well as a range of health care degree programs.
Space on the Biddeford campus will be repurposed to add new programs or to expand existing programs — including biomedical sciences and marine studies, most of which would be for undergraduate students.
UNE’s new facility will be located behind Innovation Hall, in an area now used by the National Guard.
The groundbreaking was held at the construction site Nov. 29 and featured remarks from Herbert, Jane Carreiro, dean of UNE College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Greg Powell, chairman of the Harold Alfond Foundation.
“There is a real shortage of physicians in Maine right now, especially in family practice, and especially in the outermost reaches of our largely rural state,” said Carreiro. “Our rapidly aging population makes access to a physician all the more critical for Maine’s people. In response, we have steadily grown our COM class sizes in recent years, and we will expand further when our new facility is completed, and we move to Portland.”
It has over 6,500 students, including approximately 2,300 on-campus undergraduates, 1,600 on-campus graduate students and 2,600 online students.
UNE was ranked No. 5 among Maine’s largest colleges and universities in the 2022 Mainebiz Book of Lists, based on full-time undergraduate enrollment as of fall 2021. It was also ranked No. 11 among the largest nonprofits ranked by assets for fiscal year 2019.
