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GAINESVILLE - Shands HealthCare and the University of Florida Health Science Center announced plans Tuesday for a $300-million, 200-bed cancer hospital in Gainesville.
The Shands at UF Cancer Hospital will be built on 1.4 acres now occupied by the University Centre hotel, which Shands bought for $6.1-million in a bankruptcy auction last year. It will be demolished. Construction is to begin in the summer and be completed by 2009.
The hospital will complement treatment now provided by the UF Shands Cancer Center in Gainesville, said Lance Skelly, a Shands spokesman.
Officials have indicated they will seek designation as a national cancer institute. The only one in Florida now is the Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa.