Spokane-area cancer treatment provider Cancer Care Northwest PS says it has selected Spokane contractor Bouten Construction Co. to erect its planned $14 million, 37,000-square-foot multispecialty clinic in Spokane Valley.

Crews broke ground last week on the project, to be called Cancer Care Northwest Valley Office, located on a 5.4-acre parcel of land at 1204 N. Vercler, southeast of Valley Hospital, says Warren Benincosa, Cancer Care Northwest's CEO.

Spokane-based Blue Room Architecture & Design PS designed the project. The center is expected to be completed in about a year, at which time the practice will move its current Valley clinic, which occupies 10,000 square feet of leased space in a multitenant building at 12615 E. Mission, just north of Valley Hospital.

Eight providers and 42 employees will be based at the Valley center, up from four physicians, a nurse practitioner, and a staff of 35, Benincosa says. Additionally, Cancer Care Northwest will move its business offices and 35 employees that work there into the basement of the new Valley office building, he says. The business offices currently occupy 6,400 square feet of leased space at 5105 E. Third.

Cancer Care Northwest, which was established 35 years ago, will own the planned building.

The new cancer center will house services that Cancer Care Northwest doesn't currently offer in the Valley, including radiation oncology and imaging, to provide an integrated range of cancer treatments at the center, Benincosa says. The expanded services potentially will enable patients to schedule to see oncology, radiology, surgery, and chemotherapy providers in one visit.

Cancer Care Northwest's current services in the Valley include hematology, medical oncology, surgical oncology, and social services.

The project will include installing equipment valued at more than $5.5 million, including a new linear accelerator, which is used in radiation therapy and an imaging machine called a computed tomography scanner.

Cancer Care Northwest provides surgical, radiation, medical oncology, and other services at its South Spokane clinic, at 601 S. Sherman, and at its North Side clinic in the Northpointe Office Building, at 605 E. Holland. The practice also operates a clinic in the Deaconess Health Education Center, at 910 W. Fifth, where it provides radiation oncology, endocrinology, and imaging services.

It also offers follow-up care and limited chemotherapy in outreach clinics in the Eastern Washington communities of Chewelah, Colville, Moses Lake, Ritzville, Davenport, Grand Coulee, and Newport.