A sprawling new research building is rising at the southwest corner of West Mulberry Street and Avenue C on the University of North Texas campus in Denton, and officials gave the public its closest look yet during a tour of the nearly complete facility on Friday, October 9. The building is expected to bring biomedical engineering, life sciences, chemistry, kinesiology, psychology and data science researchers under one roof, but the university still has not locked in exactly when students will walk through its doors.
A Four-Story Hub Years in the Making
UNT describes the project as a multidisciplinary research and teaching building, as does research.unt.edu; reports vary on its exact footprint: Community Impact Newspaper reports the structure stands four stories tall with roughly 110,000 square feet. The North Texas Daily reports the facility spans 111,000 square feet and that crews installed the building's final steel beam during a topping-off ceremony last October, as reported by ntdaily.com.
The project traces back to 2021, when the 87th Texas Legislature authorized tuition revenue bonds to fund it. UNT's research office says the building was funded by $103.4 million in tuition revenue bonds, though ntdaily.com has separately described the broader project as backed by a $113 million bond. The outlet also reported that the UNT Board of Regents approved a project budget of $109.1 million, according to documents from its August meeting.
Labs, Makerspaces and a Startup Incubator
Inside, the building will dedicate its second, third and fourth floors to research labs, according to seed facts tied to the project, with spaces including open labs, closed labs, biological work centers and chemistry labs. Each research floor is also expected to include faculty offices, open workspaces, huddle rooms, a conference area and a break room. A visualization lab with multiple screens will let teams display data simultaneously, and a makerspace equipped with 3D printers will give biomedical engineering students room to design and build course projects.
Kinesiology and psychology researchers will get dedicated clinical research space, which the Denton Record-Chronicle reports will include participant assessment rooms and exercise equipment, according to dentonrc.com. That clinical space is also designed to support human-health research involving biomedical engineering robotics. The ground floor, meanwhile, is intended to give advanced students room to collaborate with startups and industry partners and potentially launch their own companies based on their own research, the outlet notes.
Research Growth Driving the Investment
The new building arrives as UNT pushes to dramatically scale up its research footprint. The university's strategic plan calls for boosting annual research and development expenditures from $124 million to $250 million by 2030, according to strategicplan.unt.edu. That same plan notes total research expenditures have already climbed 78% since 2021 to more than $124 million in estimated fiscal year 2024 figures, with federal and private research expenditures reported at $49.3 million in fiscal year 2024 and a projected $55 million for fiscal year 2025.
Vice President of Research and Innovation Pamela Padilla has pointed to research activity growing by roughly 13 percent in the past year, per the same ntdaily.com report. Separately, a state strategic-plan filing from reportcenter.highered.texas.gov describes the new building as providing an opportunity to house 25 to 30 research groups from diverse fields, though that figure carries lower confidence than other project details.
Parking Pains and an Undetermined Opening Date
Getting the building built has come at a cost for campus commuters. The project was constructed on the former Lot 7, removing commuter parking spaces, and facilities.unt.edu has confirmed that Lot 7 and adjacent sidewalks have been disrupted for the duration of construction. ntdaily.com also reported that the university had previously announced an expected completion date of November 2026.
Despite the ceremonial progress, UNT has stopped short of naming a firm date for students to start using the building. Amanda Lyons, assistant director of media relations at UNT, said the official spring opening date for the research building has not been announced. The university has indicated the building will open for students sometime in the spring of the 2026-27 school year, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony is expected in early 2027, but as of Friday's tour, Denton residents and UNT students alike are still waiting on a calendar date.
