Construction of St. Joseph’s Cancer Complex Beginning this Summer
Construction instead of demolition. Growth rather than decline. New, not old.
That’s what is expected in Center Wheeling once the $122 million WVU Cancer Institute St. Joseph Regional Cancer Complex is under construction later this year, and the hope is there will be a renewed vibe buzzing around new retail and housing once the center is completed in the late summer of 2028.
That was truly the best-case scenario for the property when Wheeling’s City Council voted unanimously in June 2020 to take possession of the former campus of the Ohio Valley Medical Center. The deal with Medical Properties Trust (MPT) was instigated by Councilman Dave Palmer’s idea to renovate the former Ohio Valley Professional Center into the new headquarters for the police department, and after a couple of years of maintaining and marketing the other 770,000 square feet of space, the City finalized an agreement with WVU Health System.
“I believe the people of the Wheeling area are going to witness the resurrection of Center Wheeling, that’s for sure,” said Jessica Moore, associate vice president of Foundation and Community Relations for WVU Medicine. “And I believe it will also increase the crowds at Centre Market because those businesses were impacted in a big way when the hospital was shut down. We talked a lot about the jobs that were lost there, but there was a lot of loss at Centre Market, too.
“The negative impact was massive,” she said. “So, we’re excited for the businesses that are there now, and for the ones that open because this development is on its way. Right now, we’re looking at an $88 million economic impact during the construction phase alone.
“That’s why we chose that campus for this facility. It’s going to continue to be a place of healing, and it will be an economic driver for downtown and the Center Market area.”
The Centre Market businesses inside – and surrounding – the city’s two market houses realized immediate revenue reductions once Alecto-West Virginia shuttered all aspects of the medical center, a decision that erased more than 700 jobs in late September 2019.
“But once the construction starts later this summer, it’s very likely that construction workers will be picking up Coleman’s fish sandwiches for their families or running down after work to pick up dinner from one of the other restaurants,” Moore said. “And while they’re there, they might stop at a shop for food or beverages or something else.
“The contractors will need items from Lowe’s and other businesses in that area, too,” she explained. “It’s those kinds of purchases that aren’t thought about very often, but it’s all going to add up during construction, that’s for sure.”
Ready, Set …
The two-year demolition of the campus began in October 2023, and crews completed site clearance late last year. A utility building in the northeast corner of the property was removed a few months ago, and the hillside’s void was filled and secured in April.
In other words, the property is ready.
“From a building standpoint, we’re about a month away from when people are finally going to see activity on the property. That’s going to be a beautiful thing because so many people have been waiting to see what’s going to follow the demolition of everything on that land,” Moore explained. “There are so many interesting parts of the construction, too, including a continuous pour to construct the ceiling and walls for the radiation oncology space in the building.
“There are three treatment rooms, and the walls and ceilings will have a minimum of four-foot concrete shielding walls with an additional seven-to-eight-foot concrete shielding belt,” she explained. “It all has to be poured continuously so there are no joints or cracks in the shielding wall, so that will be an interesting beginning to this project.”
The SMITHGROUP renderings reveal a new four-story, 122,477-square-foot structure to be built into the hillside, with parking at the front and rear. The lot will feature plenty of landsculpting, a drive-up entrance, a balcony, and a bottom-level gathering area.
“We are looking at seeing our first patients in the third quarter of 2028,” Moore revealed. “There are a lot of preparations taking place now that people may not be able to see, but residents will be seeing some movement on the property this month. The property has been silent for a little while because the crews were allowing the moved dirt to settle enough for the construction.
“People saw a lot of dirt being moved around once the demolition was completed, and that’s because they were moving it to get the lot ready for the construction,” she said. “So, for the most part, the space is ready for the building’s construction, but there will be some other earthwork performed on the parking areas. There’s been a lot of permitting to get done for a project this size.”
A House of Healing
For 129 years, this particular piece of property was a destination for those seeking help, and once the St. Joseph’s Cancer Complex begins operation in two years, that tradition will resume.
The new center will welcome both local and regional patients, and many of the facility’s employees already are WVU Medicine employees, according to Moore.
“On the complex is completed, we’re looking at 150 full-time employees there in year one, and by year five, we’ll probably add about 20 more employees,” she explained. “Now, several of those folks will be pulled from Wheeling Hospital’s oncology department and Reynolds Memorial Hospital’s oncology department, but that just means we’re still putting 150 new people who haven’t populated that space.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to help that community thrive again,” Moore added. “When I’m talking about this project from a Foundation standpoint, I talk about the other benefits that are going to be in that center because I feel this is also a very thoughtful project. One example of that is the fact that we’re installing the windows that we were able to save from Mount de Chantal into the chapel.”
The design is different than that of a hospital, and creating convenience was, well, on purpose.
“There’s so much that impacts healing,” Moore said. “Experiencing everything that goes into fighting back against cancer and then recovering from that fight is one thing, but when a patient experiences any kind of inconvenience during that battle, it’s very frustrating,” Moore said. “All of those kinds of aspects to receiving treatment were taken into account when this center was designed.
“An example of that is the first-floor location of the treatment areas,” she said. “One of the things they appreciate most about this new facility is that our patients will be able to park easily and walk right into their appointments in radiation oncology on the ground floor. It’s those things that have been included with every aspect of this building’s design.”
