Mercy breaks ground on new cancer center in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS – John Belding remembers little about his treatment at Mercy Medical Center, but the Cedar Rapids man serves as a link between the hospital's past and future.

Belding, 59, was recognized at the groundbreaking Thursday, April 21, for Mercy's Hall-Perrine Cancer Center as the first patient treated for cancer at the hospital in the 1950s.

“I'm very grateful,” Belding said of the cobalt radiation used to treat his brain tumor as a 4-year-old.

His mother, Pauline Belding of Cedar Rapids, was also at Thursday's ceremony, attended by about 100 people on a blustery day.

“It was just a godsend to us because he was terminal,” she said of the radiation therapy.

She had been a caregiver for Margaret Hall, one of the people for whom the new cancer center will be named.

The center, 701 10

^th

St. SE, will wrap around the hospital's Hall Radiation Center near 10th Street and Fifth Avenue SE.

Mercy CEO Tim Charles said the new center should be in operation in about one year.

Sisters of Mercy who attended the event used holy water to bless four medals that will be placed in the new building's cornerstone.

Three were part of rosaries worn by nuns in their traditional habits and one is a contemporary medal, said Sister Susan O'Connor, vice president for Mercy's mission integration.

Once completed, the $24.6 million cancer center will house cancer services in one central location, connecting to existing radiation oncology services, private inpatient rooms and advanced surgical suites.

Public spaces within the center will include a cancer library, recovery center, family-respite room, healing gardens and meditation space.

The center will be a three-level, 85,000-square-foot facility with a primarily glass exterior and all surface parking.

Mercy will register the center for a LEED certificate, which means an independent third-party verifies the center meets the highest green building and performance measures.

Preliminary site work has already begun.  The design and construction team is comprised of local firms OPN Architects, Rinderknecht Construction and Ryan Companies.