Ground was broken today on a $187 million education building on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus to house the expansion of the University of Arizona medical school.

UA’s college of medicine currently takes in 48 students each year at its Phoenix satellite campus, but the new building will allow the medical school to expand its class size to 120 students a year.

That 268,000-square-foot building also will house the UA College of Pharmacy, the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and Northern Arizona University’s College of Health and Human Services programs.

This new building comes at a critical time when the shortage of physicians and other health care professionals continues to grow in Arizona, said UA President Robert Shelton.

“From an economic standpoint, the building will help transform Arizona’s economy,” he said. “It solidifies the Phoenix Biomedical Campus as the center of biomedical innovation, research and engineering. The Health Sciences Education Building will help the UA increase our research portfolio and enhance and establish important biotechnology partnerships in greater Phoenix.”