FIU–Baptist Health Shaham Academic Medical Center

FIU is putting a teaching hospital on its own campus. The university and Baptist Health South Florida broke ground in May 2026 on the Helen and Jacob Shaham Academic Medical Center, a $158 million facility that ties the Wertheim College of Medicine’s training directly to patient care in one building.

Project Scope. The seven-story, 163,000-square-foot center is going up on FIU’s Modesto Maidique Campus in west Miami, funded by a State of Florida appropriation. Stantec leads the design, and a joint venture of Robins & Morton and Thornton Construction is building it, with completion slated for 2028. The program mixes academic learning space with outpatient multi-specialty services, including same-day surgery and diagnostic imaging. Baptist Health will operate the clinical side, so the building has to satisfy both a teaching institution and a working health system under one roof.

Why It Matters. Medical schools increasingly want clinical training to happen on campus rather than scattered across affiliated hospitals, and a dedicated academic medical center gives students hands-on experience where they study. For South Florida, the project also expands outpatient access in a fast-growing region while deepening the local pipeline of physicians. It’s a smaller project than the region’s condo towers, but institutionally it’s a notable step in FIU’s push to build out a full academic medical enterprise.

Project Team & Details