Medical college cancer research center set to open in Wauwatosa in August

A first-of-its-kind cancer research center project on track to open in August in Wauwatosa.

The Medical College of Wisconsin invited media to tour its five-story, 161,000-square-foot Center for Cancer Discovery underway in Wauwatosa. The project  received an occupancy permit and will be turned over to the owner by Mortenson. Officials said the facility is the first and only cancer-focused research center in Wisconsin.

The project team includes architecture firm CannonDesign and Concord Group as the owner’s representative. Menomonee Falls-based Staff Electric and Milwaukee-based J.M. Brennan served as project trade partners. The project cost around $153 million.

Collaboration for researchers who stay at the CCD was a design goal early on, said Marty Van Hoof, senior project manager supervisor of the Medical College of Wisconsin. That includes modular offices, shared laboratories and equipment and larger common spaces. An open staircase runs through the building from the first to fifth floors along the elevators, allowing chances for researchers to “bump” into one another for more interaction.

There will be 300 people working in the CCD, including scientists, trainees, lab techs and coordinators, faculty and staff, said Colleen McDonald, a spokesperson for MCW. There will be room and space in the building for additional researchers and their teams to join, she added.

MCW has spent around $4.5 million so far on equipment to accommodate the recruitment of more scientists, Van Hoof said. Researcher will move in with their own equipment as well, he added.

Upon completion, researchers will move into the CCD from neighboring buildings such as the Translational and Biomedical Research Center and the Health Research Center, Van Hoof said. The CCD will have bridges to both buildings and the future Versiti Blood Research Institute, which broke ground in September 2024.

Floors two through four are lab areas. The lab areas include 53 bays for “wet” labs, which involve using liquids and chemicals in research work, and 59 offices for computer research and data crunching.

The first-floor entrance is for research staff only, but there will be opportunities for special events open to the public, project officials said. Floor one is home to a community room that fits 535 people, a BioHub collaborative space for startups and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research.

Mortenson spent around eight months performing underground work before starting to build up, as the footprint was over many campus utilities, said Kaleigh Kocovsky, project engineer for the general contractor. The site was formerly a green space.

Capacity of the CCD is around 450-500 people, Van Hoof said. 

In 2019, the state of Wisconsin announced a $10 million grant to aid construction of the cancer research center. Mortenson broke ground in 2022.

The company is also working at the Versiti Blood Research Institute, located at 8727 W. Watertown Plank Rd. in Wauwatosa. The project broke ground in 2024 and is expected to be completed in 2026. HGA served as the architect for the research institute.

In Madison, the Carbone Cancer Center has around 400 researchers, physicians and educators inside the University of Wisconsin, university officials said.