McLaren Cancer Center

NEG had previous experience with medical office buildings, but never anything so technical as a cancer center.  I volunteered to take on this responsibility.

Background:  NEG had purchased land for an industrial park development in Independence Township/Clarkston, Michigan.  The park kicked off with the development of a 120,000 s.f. industrial building for Recticel. 

McLaren Hospital desired this location for their next hospital development so a JV was structured with McLaren purchasing the remaining acreage and NEG leading the development of all projects within the park, other than the hospital itself.

The entire Park was Master Planned via a PUD and two projects were designed to start immediately, the Great Lakes Cancer Center and a mixed use office/retail development.   

I was the lead on the development and financed the project with a letter of credit funded construction loan and a forward lock commitment with a life insurance company.  As everyone knows, 2008 was the beginning of some very tough years for financing and few lenders were left in the market.

During the design and development, I worked with RTKL Architects out of Chicago, PEA Associates Engineers and Cunningham Limp as general contractor. 

This was an incredibly complex build-out and included a linear accelerator chamber with 4' thick walls and an HDR and CT scanner lab. I included the A101 drawings for review. The design included an environmentally friendly white roof, an aesthetically pleasing roof garden as well as a place of peace for the cancer patients in the healing garden adjacent to the building. The building opened in 2009.

I also led the leasing/joint venture effort of the two main Oncology Groups who ultimately located here. We continue to refine the mixed use retail/office center and may approach the township to modify the PUD to allow hotels.

The Center is now a joint venture with the Karmanos Cancer Centers.