Moffitt Cancer Center to open South Hillsborough facility
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Aug 17, 2022

Moffitt Cancer Center plans to develop a new facility in Ruskin.

Dr. Patrick Hwu, president and CEO of Moffitt, exclusively told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that the cancer center is under contract to acquire 9 acres in the southeast quadrant of East College Avenue and 27th Street Southeast in Ruskin.

Moffitt will build a treatment center between 75,000 and 85,000 square feet on the property, Hwu said. The facility will offer care for patients who need frequent treatments, such as those receiving radiation therapy or infusions, as well as services like imaging and laboratory work.

Clinical trials will be offered at the Ruskin facility, Hwu said. While the Ruskin facility will serve the rapidly growing population in South Hillsborough, it will also draw patients from Bradenton and Sarasota.

"One of our missions is to get treatment to people where they live," he said. "We really want to try to get closer to patients so that when they may not be feeling their best — maybe they have some nausea — we don’t want to make them drive all the way [to North Tampa]."

Moffitt is set to close on the land in November and expects final zoning approvals by year's end. Construction will begin in the first quarter of 2023, and the facility will be complete by late 2024.

Plans for the Ruskin location are unveiled just as Mayor Ken Welch killed plans for a mixed-use development in downtown St. Petersburg that would have included a Moffitt facility. Hwu said Moffitt still plans to build a care center in Pinellas County.

"We are committed to the people in St. Pete and Pinellas County, and we understand the need," he said. 'So we will be continuing to look for other situations there where we can help that community."

Moffitt is also under construction on a new $400 million hospital in Tampa and also has a massive life sciences and research park under development in Pasco County.