The city issued a permit July 12 for The Robins & Morton Group to put in the structural steel, foundation and shell for the Mayo Clinic in Florida integrated oncology building at a project cost of almost $74.3 million.
The three-story, 255,061-square-foot building is under development at the Mayo campus at 4500 San Pablo Road S.
Site work began in August on the $233 million project that will include proton beam and carbon ion therapy.
Completion is expected in early 2025.
Mayo Communications Manager Kevin Punsky said previously that upon completion, the building will include two proton beam treatment rooms, one carbon ion treatment room, two linear accelerators, CT and MRI patient imaging, patient exam areas and treatment planning spaces for clinical staff.
The facility will include a two-gantry proton radiotherapy system.
The construction also will have space for education and staff and patient support areas.
The Robins & Morton Group of Orlando is the contractor and Perkins & Will of Atlanta as the architect. Prosser Inc. is the civil engineer.
In June 2019, Mayo announced it would build a 140,000-square-foot project on the campus, but the size has grown substantially.
Mayo Clinic said it is investing $211 million for the integrated oncology facility support tower and advanced radiation equipment, including proton beam, and $22 million for parking and patient walkways.
Mayo said the project will be near the Mangurian Building, which houses hematology and oncology care, and the Oncology Infusion Center.
A news release said keeping the services close together will best serve Mayo’s cancer patients and further integrate cancer care on the Florida campus.
“This facility will give us the ability to offer our patients the full spectrum of cancer treatment options, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, CAR-T cell therapy (chimeric antigen receptor therapy T-cell therapy), surgery, proton beam therapy, gamma knife radiosurgery and traditional radiotherapy,” said Dr. Kent Thielen, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida, in the 2019 announcement.
He said it would give patients access to proton beam therapy clinical trials offered through Mayo’s National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.
Mayo Clinic said the proton beam therapy program uses pencil beam scanning to deliver precise radiotherapy with lower doses of radiation to healthy tissue, “subsequently reducing toxicity and negative side effects in patients.”
Mayo said the targeted therapy “is ideal for people with tumors close to, or in, vital organs.”
Mayo Clinic said it successfully introduced proton beam therapy at its campuses in Rochester, Minnesota, in 2015 and in Phoenix in 2016.