El Paso-based Texas Tech University wants to purchase vacant property next to its health sciences center to expand its dental school, KTSM reported April 11.
Among the property the school is looking to purchase is a building occupied by the city’s Department of Public Health worth $9.4 million.
The El Paso City Council heard a presentation April 11 that discussed purchase of the property.
Richard Lange, MD, president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso and dean of the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, told city officials the school wants to tear down the building and replace it with the dental school once funding for the project is secured.
He added that the new building will increase class sizes from 60 to 100 per year, allowing the school to have at least 240 dental students in three years.