Moses Cone Regional Cancer Center Expansion

October 29, 2010

On Monday, Oct. 11, local elected officials, community leaders and hospital staff gathered in the parking lot beside Moses Cone Health System Regional Cancer Center for a ground breaking ceremony for the expansion and renovation of the cancer center, and to celebrate the new fundraising approach by Moses Cone to meet the growing needs of the community for specialized medical care.

The new 33,000-square-foot cancer center will house the Doris S. Tanger Center for Patient and Family Support and the Alight Breast Cancer Center and will be an addition to the current cancer center, which adjoins the Wesley Long Community Hospital on Elam Avenue.

The Tanger Center will offer educational programs, a variety of support groups, and state-of-the-art informational resources to cancer patients and their loved ones. The new building will contain a 100-seat auditorium, a 54-seat classroom, a cancer library and offices for pastoral care, social work, psychology and nutrition counseling.

The Tanger Center is named for Doris Tanger of Greensboro. She is a breast cancer survivor herself, and she and her husband, the late Stanley Tanger, contributed $1 million dollars toward the creation of the new cancer center and have been very active in supporting breast cancer organizations through the Stanley K. Tanger Breast Cancer Fund, which has contributed millions of dollars to cancer related causes over the years.

Stanley Tanger was a successful shopping center developer who many credit with creating the concept of factory outlet centers. He built the country's first factory outlet in Burlington, North Carolina, in 1981 and grew Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. to include 33 outlets nationwide.

The first floor of the new cancer center will contain the Alight Breast Cancer Center, which will allow the care for breast cancer patients to be housed in a central location, with offices for medical staff, examining rooms and waiting areas. The new breast cancer center's name comes from Alight, a non-profit organization founded in 2005 by breast cancer survivor Mary Gorrell Jones. The organization supports newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and their families, financially and with counseling and education.

The groundbreaking of the expanded cancer center was a success for the Moses Cone Office of Fund Development, which was formed in 2006 to solicit community donations and support for expansion and improvements in the delivery of health care to the community. Approximately $5 million in funding and contributions for the cancer center was collected from the community through the Office of Fund Development.

The Regional Cancer Center expansion will be built by Rentenback Constructors Inc., which has offices in Greensboro, Knoxville, Dallas and Chattanooga. The expansion was designed by Wilkerson Associates Architects of Charlotte. The $15 million expansion and renovation project is expected to be completed by the end of 2011.