Texas A&M is staking its medical research future on Houston and a burgeoning relationship with Houston Methodist Hospital following its recent purchase of a tract near the Texas Medical Center.

The A&M University System closed last month on the 5.5-acre purchase, acquiring an 18-story office building for a specialized engineering medicine program in collaboration with Methodist. A&M says it paid $62 million in the deal.

The purchase of the site at 1020 Holcombe comes seven months after William McRaven, the chancellor of the University of Texas System, said the system would retreat from a 300-plus-acre land purchase that drew opposition from state lawmakers and University of Houston boosters.

The UT deal was criticized for being negotiated in secret and without the blessing of key state leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott who, it later was revealed, had counseled McRaven to back off the plan.

The memory of that flap clearly was on the mind of Texas A&M Chancellor Sharp as he moved forward with his own system's land deal.

Before regents authorized the land's purchase, Sharp notified two critics of the UT purchase, state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, and the UH System.

He said he also got approval from Abbott, whose office did not respond to requests for comment to confirm Sharp's account.

"What they get upset about is when you buy something without them knowing anything about it, and then you don't have a plan for what you want to do with it after you bought it," Sharp said recently. "That was not the case here."

'Future is ... Houston'

Sharp met with UH System Chancellor Renu Khator in her office about six months ago, and said she was open to collaboration on the project.

UH confirmed Sharp's account, but said Khator was not available for comment.

Sharp said he expects the Texas A&M medical school to invest more deeply in Houston moving forward - potential competition for UH's hopes of building a medical school.

"The emphasis for our entire health science center in the future is going toward Houston," he said.

Of Methodist, he added, "We want to marry them, we want to partner with them. We'll do anything they'll let us do."

Methodist President Marc Boom noted that the hospital already has a primary affiliation with Cornell University's New York City-based medical school, but said the hospital's open model allows it to partner with a number of institutions.

"As A&M expands its presence in Houston, there will be lots of wonderful opportunities for us to continue to collaborate in the research realm," Boom said.

First announced in June 2016, the so-called EnMed program hopes to attract 50 medical students with engineering backgrounds per year for dual degrees in engineering and medicine.

The inaugural class begins in July 2019, said Carrie Byington, the system's vice chancellor for health sciences.

The program expects to field requests from Texas Medical Center doctors who need engineers to create devices that will improve health care delivery, such as a pacifier that measures babies' dehydration.

The goal will be for every graduate to invent an innovative device during the program.

"It's a high bar to set, but we believe these students are going to be some of the finest in the nation and have exceptional qualifications," Byington said. "I see A&M as becoming more and more integral to the Texas Medical Center and operating our own unique (engineering) expertise."

Boom said there is no other medical engineering program anywhere in the country. He said the program makes great sense given the strength of A&M's engineering program and how "technology is at the focal point of where medicine is headed."

McRaven's stumbles

A&M currently has about 50 third- and fourth-year medical students rotating through Methodist. That program began in 2015.

While most Texas medical schools operate residency programs - A&M sponsors nearly 100 slots for residents at a number of hospitals - Methodist runs its own. It sponsors more than 300 residents and fellows.

In 2016, officials projected that the EnMed program would use 75,000 square feet of instructional and research space in the Texas Medical Center. Sharp, however, said that as discussions with Methodist moved forward, the entities realized more space would be necessary.

The A&M system did not discuss purchasing new land during the legislative session, Sharp said.

UT officials faced sharp criticism after they unveiled their purchase in November 2015 without discussing it during the prior legislative session. UH's regents said the expansion would violate state guidelines that aim to avoid duplicating academic offerings in one geographic area, while lawmakers were livid that the UT System spent so much money on property without a plan for how to use the land.

McRaven since has conceded he should have better communicated the project with lawmakers and local leaders. The UT System did not respond to a request for comment.

Whitmire, who opposed the UT System's expansion in Houston, said Sharp approached him about the possibility of buying property over the summer.

The two land deals, Whitmire said, are "apples and oranges." Not discussing the land purchase during the legislative session did not upset Whitmire because A&M had a plan for how it would use the property and because he was alerted in advance of the announcement, he said.

"It doesn't bother me that I hadn't heard about it in Austin last spring, because when I did hear about it, there were no holes in it," he said.

UH has expressed interest in opening a medical school to provide primary care to underserved pockets of Houston, including in the neighborhoods around its southeast Houston campus.

UH spokesman Mike Rosen said in an email that a growing A&M presence would have "no impact" on UH's ambitions to create a medical school because of the university's goal to target community health, primary care and mental health services to underserved communities.