SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Mayor Gavin Newsom today announced that the San Francisco Department of Public Health AIDS Office will be receiving $9.5 million in ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funding over the next five years to renovate and expand the Department’s ability to provide HIV/AIDS research at the AIDS Office at 25 Van Ness. The grant for the project-titled SOAR, the San Francisco Office of AIDS Renovation-comes by way of the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health.

“The San Francisco Department of Public Health’s AIDS Office is an international leader in HIV prevention and surveillance research,” said Mayor Newsom. “No other city in this country can boast a $46 million research portfolio devoted exclusively to HIV. This grant will provide the AIDS office with a research center commensurate with the world-class work that has gone on there for the past 20 years.”

The AIDS Office will not only renovate new and existing research space to conduct state-of-the-art HIV research, but will also allow the City a broader opportunity to promote collaboration between research units and colleagues worldwide, and create meeting space for community members to guide research efforts.

The next 8-month phase of the work will focus on concept and design specifics, with construction expected to begin in Spring 2011. The sustainable design goal is to achieve a LEED Silver rating. The historic 25 Van Ness Avenue building was built in 1911 and was formerly a Masonic Temple, designed by Walter Bliss. The historic architecture, statuary and wall murals will be preserved as an integral part of the new AIDS Research Center.

It is estimated that this construction grant will create over 100 new jobs.