The University of New Mexico Board of regents approved UNM's partnership with the Sandia Foundation to build the first building located at the new UNM West campus in Rio Rancho. UNM and the Sandia Foundation anticipate the building will be completed in time for classes to begin for the spring semester of 2010.

Nearly three-quarters of the 40,000 square foot building will house classrooms and student support services. The UNM Medical Group will use approximately 10% of the building for administrative functions, with the rest being used for faculty/staff offices and building systems. The building will be designed as a student-oriented, architecurally distinctive, flexible-space learning facility.

The new building will act as an"incubator" for both program and campus development, and may ultimately become multi-institutional in nature as UNM's "2&2" partnership with Central New Mexico Community College is refined and a new partnership with New Mexico State University is developed for the delivery of selected programs such as tourism and hospitality management that do not duplicate UNM offerings. Total project costs are estimated to be $10.98 million.