UCF’s Board of Trustees approved Tuesday the first four partners for a new university cancer center that will bring a new level of cancer care and research to Orlando’s growing Medical City.

Trustees approved four leases that will bring in $1.87 million a year in rent of the $2 million-a-year mortgage payment UCF is initially making on the center. College of Medicine leaders continue seeking other partners.

The first four tenants in the cancer center are:

  • Sarah Cannon Research Institute, the cancer research arm of HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest hospital corporation and UCF’s partner in building UCF Lake Nona Medical Center, its new teaching hospital. Sarah Cannon is the largest provider of cancer care in the nation, serving more than 2.5 million patients a year. It will lease 19,562 square feet of UCF’s center for clinical research, clinical trials and drug discovery.
  • Florida Cancer Specialists, a large oncology physician practice with locations across Florida and Central Florida. It will lease 6,974 square feet for patient care.
  • The Radiation Oncology Department of UCF Lake Nona Medical Center. It will lease 14,263 square feet of space and build a vault next to the cancer center for radiation therapy.
  • Clinical Education Shared Services, HCA’s Simulation and Education Center, that will train healthcare providers across the hospital corporation’s North Florida region. It will rent 16,953 square feet for clinical simulation and classroom space.

The cancer center, in the former Sanford Burnham Prebys research facility, also has extensive wet lab space. UCF will use about half of the building for College of Medicine cancer researchers and other university scientists. With the first four leases approved, UCF and its partners can begin demolition and refurbishing to create a center where physicians treating cancer patients and scientists discovering new treatments will work under the same roof – all next door to UCF’s new hospital.

“This cancer center will serve our patients, our students and our scientists.” – Deborah German, UCF College of Medicine dean

Deborah German, vice president for health affairs and founding dean of the UCF College of Medicine, told trustees the medical school is meeting with other potential partners who wish to rent space in the new cancer center. Those parties will provide additional revenues– and additional programs to serve cancer patients and their families.

“This cancer center will serve our patients, our students and our scientists,” she says.

UCF purchased the Sanford Burnham Prebys institute after that facility announced it was closing. The university’s $50 million purchase – made in mortgage payments to Orange County over the next 30 years – reimburses some of the tax dollars used to lure Sanford Burnham to the community.