M.D. Anderson sets timeline for Energy Corridor campus

By Joe Martin

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center expects to break ground on a new 170,000-square-foot facility in the Energy Corridor that will consolidate the cancer research and treatment hospital’s west Houston operations.

The new facility, located on the north side of Interstate 10 between Eldridge and Park & Ride Drive, is expected to be completed sometime in 2018 following a 2016 groundbreaking. It will consolidate the three existing west Houston operations that M.D. Anderson currently has, including clinical offices, lab and imaging services, and supportive care, said Kent Postma, executive director of regional operations for M.D. Anderson.

All of those facilities are currently housed in an office building, Memorial Hermann’s Memorial City campus or on the former site of St. Catherine Hospital, which is now owned by Houston Methodist. Once the new building is completed, it will be M.D. Anderson’s first standalone campus outside the Texas Medical Center. HDR Inc. is the architect for the project and Linbeck Group LLC will be the contractor.

The different services will move into the new center between 2018 and 2022 as existing operating leases at the current locations expire, Postma said.

M.D. Anderson purchased the 34.77 acres in 2012 from Central Park West LP, an affiliate of Houston real estate firm Wolff Cos. for $34.1 million. Currently, there are no plans for the rest of the acreage, which amounts to about 25 acres. However, the new medical office building is designed to allow for future development down the road.

“There are no current plans for it,” Postma said. “We don’t want to put something in the middle and not allow us to do something in the future.”

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