City of Hope is advancing in its plans to bring comprehensive cancer care to Orange County, as the Irvine Planning Commission approved the first phase of the new City of Hope campus. 

A decision was made by the planning commission on Thursday, December 19 to allow City of Hope’s plans for converting an office building located in the FivePoint Gateway to move forward. 

At nearly 190,000-square-feet, the former offices located off of Barranca Parkway and Alton Parkway will be repurposed into an outpatient cancer center, helping to further City of Hope’s goal to expand and accelerate plans to provide cancer services to the thousands of Orange County residents in need. 

“We’re excited that the planning commission embraced our vision with their unanimous decision,” shared Annette Walker, president of City of Hope Orange County, with Irvine Weekly. “This is an important milestone and historic moment for City of Hope in Orange County. Our team is moving forward with great momentum. As always, we’re grateful to FivePoint for their partnership and support and appreciate the planning commission’s endorsement.”

Overall, City of Hope intends to invest more than $1 billion in the development and support of a comprehensive cancer care campus to serve the nearly 20 percent of O.C. residents that currently must leave the area for advanced cancer care. 

“We’ve spent the last year listening intently to the people in Orange County and identifying how we can contribute to meeting both the present and future community needs,” said Walker in a release. “It became evident that we needed to bring our highly specialized treatments as soon as possible. We’re delivering on our promise and opening our doors faster to alleviate the unnecessary hardships on patients and their families. Residents soon will be able to access City of Hope’s latest and most advanced therapies closer to home.”

The approved office building makes up a portion of the 11 acres slated for City of Hope development. All located within FivePoint Gateway, the highly-anticipated care center has a champion in FivePoint chairman and CEO Emile Haddad. 

“At FivePoint, we believe in creating places that offer equal access to the most important aspects of our lives,” explained Haddad in a release. “Building a sustainable society that moves humanity forward goes beyond building structures for housing, schools and recreation. It includes creating spaces where the body, mind and soul get strengthened together. Because it takes a village to build a community, FivePoint is constantly searching for partners that innovate and shape the future of how people will live. As FivePoint considered the importance of wellness, it was clear that City of Hope is the ideal partner to bring world-class cancer treatment and research to Irvine and Orange County.”

The City of Hope cancer campus will induce not only a specialty hospital, but a diagnostic outpatient center, clinical trials, personalized supportive care services, and access to highly specialized cancer experts and treatment. 

Currently, the first phase of the campus is expected to open in 2021. 

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