The Phoenix City Council today will consider a development agreement that would contribute up to $14 million to help build a $135 million Arizona Cancer Center outpatient clinic in downtown Phoenix.
Phoenix and biomedical leaders have long sought a hospital or clinic at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, and the University of Arizona Cancer Center wants a major clinical presence in downtown Phoenix to reach the bulk of the state's residents.
Under the proposed deal, Phoenix would contribute $14 million toward design and financing costs for a six-story, 250,000-square-foot outpatient center planned at the northwestern corner of Fillmore and Seventh streets.
Mayor Phil Gordon said he is optimistic that construction could start before the end of this year. The deal the council will vote on today requires the Arizona Cancer Center to complete design of the outpatient clinic by June 2012 and start construction by the end of 2012.
Gordon said the downtown Arizona Cancer Center would benefit the state's residents through cutting-edge medical treatments and would provide an economic jolt with both temporary construction jobs and permanent medical and research jobs.
"This will add jobs - crucial, high-paying jobs," Gordon said. "It also starts to add to that 24/7 downtown knowledge economy that we have all focused on."
The outpatient center would bring the first clinical center to the downtown campus anchored by the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix, Translational Genomics Research Institute and the International Genomics Consortium.
UA has talked with other health-care providers to build a downtown hospital, but no deal has progressed as far as the cancer-center plan. Maricopa Integrated Health Systems and Banner Health both discussed downtown hospital plans with UA, but talks fizzled.
Those deals prompted UA to plot a strategy that called for ties with existing Phoenix-area hospitals such as St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center and Phoenix Children's Hospital.
Meanwhile, other Phoenix-area health providers are also expanding their cancer-fighting offerings.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Banner Health will open a 120,000-square-foot clinic this fall at Banner Gateway Medical Center in Gilbert.
Mayo Clinic is developing a $182 million proton-beam-therapy center that will include a towering three-story machine that offers targeted doses of radiation to tumors.
The Cancer Treatment Centers of America has purchased a 42-acre site next to its existing campus in Goodyear and plans an expansion.
Under terms of the deal that the Phoenix council is scheduled to vote on today, Phoenix would pay a total of $4 million in 2011 and 2012 to help pay for design costs followed by annual $2 million payments over the next five years. The money would come from the city's genomics-facilities-operations and -maintenance fund, which is generated from leases and other revenue from the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.
Councilman Bill Gates said the Arizona Cancer Center development would benefit all of Phoenix.
"The cancer center will be important to the success and growth of downtown," Gates said.
The University of Arizona Foundation is seeking to raise private funds to pay for the planned cancer center, which eventually would treat about 60,000 patients each year.
The Arizona Cancer Center already has bolstered its ties with metro Phoenix health-care providers. The Tucson-based center signed a letter of intent to open a new unit within St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix this summer. The cancer center has an affiliation agreement with Pinnacle Oncology Hematology in Scottsdale.
The Arizona Cancer Center also reached a pact with Phoenix Children's Hospital for joint research, academic programs and revenue exchanges to help train young doctors.
Arizona Cancer Center Director David Alberts said the agreements with local health-care providers are important steps as it builds its clinical ties in the Phoenix area.
Alberts emphasized that the downtown center would be an "open practice," meaning it would offer space and privileges to community oncologists who wanted to treat patients there.
In addition to cancer, the new center would have medical providers and researchers who would focus on other diseases, including arthritis, diabetes and heart disease.
"The vision of the city (Phoenix) has been so important in building a modern medical and genomics program for Phoenix," Alberts said.
"The cancer center is one piece of that vision."
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