The Sarasota County Public Hospital Board has authorized Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) to move forward with construction of its new seven-story Cancer Pavilion on Waldemere Street. Preliminary plans also call for an adjacent parking garage and skybridge, which will connect the pavilion to the oncology tower SMH opened on its Sarasota campus last November.

The pavilion is the third in a series of facilities that are part of the health system’s expanding Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute. In response to the rising number of local cancer cases and the complexity of modern cancer care delivery, SMH launched its  cancer program in 2018 to give cancer patients, caregivers and medical providers access to the latest treatments, technologies, clinical trials and supportive care.

Site work on the $220 million Cancer Pavilion is scheduled to begin later this year. To make room for the pavilion and parking garage, which will have about 700 spaces, SMH plans to demolish the existing Cape Outpatient Surgery Center and a smaller SMH-owned building on the southwest corner of Floyd Street and U.S 41. SMH will temporarily transition outpatient surgeries currently being performed at the Cape Center to existing operating rooms in the hospital during construction. Outpatient surgeries will resume in the Cancer Pavilion once it is operational.

EYP Architects and Turner Construction/J2 Solutions will design and build the new facility. When complete, the pavilion will house a new breast health center, outpatient surgery suites, radiation oncology, infusion services, diagnostic imaging, and integrative and supportive care.