City of Hope to invest $1 billion for cancer treatment and research near Irvine’s Great Park

IRVINE – City of Hope will invest more than $1 billion to develop and support a comprehensive cancer campus next to the Orange County Great Park, about $800 million more and four years sooner than what originally was planned for its Irvine health campus.

City of Hope administrators announced they are purchasing 11 acres of land including a 190,000-square-foot building from developer FivePoint for a main Orange County cancer campus, which they expect to open to the public as early as 2021.

The comprehensive cancer campus will include an outpatient center, a clinical research center with access to about 500 clinical trials, and the only specialty hospital in Orange County that will focus exclusively on treating and curing cancer, said Annette M. Walker, president of City of Hope, Orange County.

The decision to significantly expand the Irvine campus stemmed from the dire need for cancer care services in Orange County, Walker said. About 3,200 cancer patients travel an average of 88 miles round-trip to the City of Hope cancer center in Duarte to get these services now, she said.

“It became evident that we needed to bring our highly specialized treatments to Orange County as soon as possible,” Walker said. “We’re delivering on our promise and opening our doors faster to alleviate the unnecessary hardships on patients and their families.”

In February, administrators for the nonprofit City of Hope announced their advent into Orange County with a 12,500-square-foot treatment center at 1601 Avocado Ave. in Newport Beach, to help serve patients who make the long commute from Orange County to Duarte. This center is on track to open at the end of 2019, Walker said.

At the time, Walker said, the plan was to build a main campus in Irvine on land donated by FivePoint, which is overseeing the development of about 10,000 homes around the Great Park. The plan was to build a $200 million, 73,000-square-foot cancer center near the Great Park by 2025.

“But, after listening to patients, it became evident that some of the resources that Orange County needed weren’t going to fit into that,” she said. “We needed much more and much sooner.”

Walker said FivePoint came back with the larger, 190,000-square-foot building, which would be “just right” for the comprehensive treatment and research center City of Hope has planned for Orange County. City of Hope purchased the land and the larger building.

Walker said there are many reasons City of Hope’s expanded presence in Orange County is urgent.

Nearly 20 percent of residents leave the area for advanced care, with many heading to the Duarte campus, which is up to two hours away for some Orange County residents.

Also, cancer incidence in the county is projected to increase by 18 percent over the next 10 years. And because cancer risk increases with age, Walker said, the county is more at risk with a population that is aging faster than the national average.

She said in addition to treatment, diagnostic services and research, the campus will offer personalized support care services and resources such as palliative care (pain management) physicians, psychiatrists, social workers and others who partner with patients and their families to address physical and emotional issues that can arise during and after treatment.

Newport Beach resident Leslie Seigel, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, said she would leave home for Duarte around 7 a.m. on days when she underwent chemotherapy treatment and wouldn’t return until 7 p.m. or later.

“It took at least an hour and a half each way, it was exhausting,” she said. “Having City of Hope here is not just a convenience for cancer patients in Orange County, it’s an absolute necessity.”

Seigel, 59, said she didn’t make use of other services offered by City of Hope such as lectures, music therapy and art therapy because she didn’t want to drive out there each time.

She said the Orange County facility will be a blessing for those who now have to take a day off to drive to Duarte for treatments.

“The world doesn’t stop when you have cancer,” she said.

Seigel said the Orange County facilities also are going to help her get all her diagnostics and follow-ups done in one place. The proximity of the cancer center will be a boon for relatives as well, she said.

“It helps family members support you by being there because your mental state, when you have cancer, is so important,” Seigel said.

For FivePoint chairman and CEO Emile Haddad, City of Hope is one more piece of the puzzle to complete his vision for a sustainable and self-sufficient master-planned community in the Great Park neighborhoods, which offers opportunities for housing, education, entertainment and, soon, health care.

Haddad said he believes City of Hope shares his vision for the future. He said during a recent tour of the Duarte campus, that he appreciated the organization’s evolution from a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1914 to the world-class cancer research and treatment campus it is today.

“When tuberculosis was eradicated, they evolved to tackle the next big health challenge, which is cancer,” Haddad said. “One day, the war on cancer is going to be won. But, I’m confident that City of Hope will focus on the next challenge humanity is going to have.

“This is not just about a transaction, but really about a common vision.”