New facility for SFU Surrey medical school to cost $520 million | Daily Hive

New purpose-built facility for SFU Surrey medical school to cost $520 million

2024 revised concept for the Centre Block's north parcels redevelopment. (Hariri Pontarini Architects/Adamson Architects/SCDC)

This week, the Government of British Columbia officially confirmed the location of the new permanent purpose-built facility for Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) medical school within the Surrey City Centre campus.

As previously reported by Daily Hive Urbanized in 2024, it will be located within the City of Surrey’s future Centre Block office complex project — immediately west of SkyTrain’s Surrey Central Station, and just north of the bus loop and the Central City tower, where the bulk of the SFU Surrey campus is situated.

Earlier this year, site preparation began on the Centre Block site through the demolition of the closed North Surrey Recreation Centre and North Surrey Arena.

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According to the provincial government’s newest details, the SFU School of Medicine will occupy eight floors of a new 12-storey building at the multi-building Centre Block complex. This is a reduction in building size from the 2024 application’s outlined 17-storey building.

It will feature classrooms, clinical-skills spaces, research labs, and administrative offices and support areas, as well as an outpatient clinic that serves to both offer healthcare services for Surrey residents and provide real-world training opportunities for students. There will also be a childcare facility with space for 49 kids to support the SFU Surrey community.

This is B.C.’s second medical school for training more doctors and nurses — the second medical school in the province after the long-established Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. It is also the first new medical school in Western Canada in nearly six decades.

centre block sfu surrey 10261-10275 city parkway 2024

Site of the north parcels of Centre Block at 10261-10275 City Parkway, Surrey. (City of Surrey)

2024 revised concept for the Centre Block’s north parcels redevelopment, and the future south parcels redevelopment. (Hariri Pontarini Architects/Adamson Architects/SCDC)

2024 revised concept for Surrey’s Centre Block’s north parcels redevelopment. (Hariri Pontarini Architects/Adamson Architects/SCDC)

Construction on this new building is expected to begin in late 2026 and reach completion and open in Fall 2030. It is the first phase of the Centre Block project by the City-owned for-profit real estate company Surrey City Development Corporation (SCDC).

The capital cost of building the new permanent medical school facilities is about $520 million, with the provincial government and university covering these expenses.

A future larger phase of Centre Block involves building a 754-ft-tall, 45-storey tower with office and institutional space — one of Metro Vancouver’s future tallest buildings.

Over time, the existing bus loop and surface parking lot are also expected to be redeveloped into additional phases of Centre Block.

Although the permanent facilities for the new school will not be ready until early in the next decade, the new school will open next summer.

In August 2026, the medical school’s first students will begin their education and training at a temporary space within the SFU Surrey campus at a cost of $34 million. The first 48-student class will learn if they are accepted by late Spring 2026. Applications are now open for the three-year program.

The size of each class is expected to increase every year until it reaches 120 students by 2035.

2024 revised concept for the Centre Block’s north parcels redevelopment. (Hariri Pontarini Architects/Adamson Architects/SCDC)

This new program at SFU forms a part of the provincial government’s strategy of addressing B.C.’s chronic shortage of doctors.

In addition to the partnership between the provincial government, university, and the municipal government, the new school also involves Fraser Health Authority and the First Nations Health Authority.

“SFU is committed to making a difference for B.C. and the communities we serve through education and research. The new school of medicine will exemplify that strong commitment by training future physicians to deliver community-embedded, socially accountable and culturally safe primary health care,” said Joy Johnson, president of SFU, in a statement.

Premier David Eby added, “These two major milestones bring us closer to training the next generation of doctors right here in Surrey, where they are urgently needed. The new state-of-the-art SFU medical school, along with the new Surrey hospital and B.C. Cancer Centre, will make this city a hub of innovative, high-quality health care. This is just one way our government is improving health care in British Columbia and helping more people find a family doctor close to home.”

The $2.9-billion new Cloverdale Hospital and BC Cancer Centre campus — the second hospital in Surrey — is also slated to open in 2030.

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