Jason Harris, management assistant for Phoenix's Community and Economic Development Department, tells GlobeSt.com that 18 firms from across the country have filed qualification statements in recent days with the city indicating their interest in building the $31-million project. The Phoenix Biomedical Campus will be located on a 15-acre parcel in the downtown, bounded by Fifth and Seventh streets and Filmore and Van Buren avenues.

Harris said city officials have been reviewing the firms' qualifications and will present their final three choices to council by mid-November. A final decision on the project's contractor will be made in December.

Harris declined to give the names of the firms vying for the project, but said they reflect developers from the national, regional and local levels. The biomedical campus, which could also house research facilities for state universities, is the city's first step towards developing a central corridor of biotech industries in this state.