Construction has just about wrapped up at 525 12th St. in downtown Oakland, the new home of Samuel Merritt University , Oakland’s 116-year-old health sciences university.

In a few weeks, movers will load 315 truckloads of furniture, academic papers, hospital mannequins and other clinical equipment, and drive a little more than a mile from Pill Hill to the university’s new campus, slated to officially open on Jan. 5, said President Ching-Hua Wang. When it opens, the university will bring 2,000 students and 500 faculty and staff to the city’s center. Finding a new campus for the school, which has outgrown the facilities it rents from Sutter Health, was one of Wang’s first charges when she became president in 2018.

City leaders are hopeful the move will revitalize downtown Oakland followi

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