SYRACUSE — Dr. Leslie Kohman, medical director of the Upstate Cancer Center, calls the newly opened facility “a vision fulfilled.”

“Leaders, physicians, staff, and patients have been waiting to get into a new facility for … I will say decades,” said Kohman.

She spoke during the July 18 ceremony as SUNY Upstate Medical University formally opened the Cancer Center.

“Nurses and techs who’ve been trying to take care of patients in cramped quarters and physicians who’ve had to collaborate with their colleagues across numerous buildings on different parts of the campus and services where we haven’t had anywhere to house them will now come together in this fabulous facility,” said Kohman.

In speaking with reporters during a tour before the formal opening, Kohman said she had been talking with school leadership about such a facility since the late 1990s.

“There was a lot of dreaming, planning, design, construction, and a lot of hard work by a lot of dedicated people and organizations that made Upstate Cancer Center a reality,” Richard (Dick) Kilburg, associate administrator for the Upstate Cancer Center, said in his remarks during the formal opening.

The Cancer Center sits adjacent to Upstate University Hospital at 750 E. Adams St. in Syracuse.

The $74 million, 90,000-square-foot facility occupies three of the five floors in the new facility. The total cost for the entire five-story building is $100 million, Upstate said.

The building includes two additional floors to accommodate future expansion, according to the school.

Upstate is financing the cost of the Cancer Center construction through bonds that facility-generated revenue will repay, the school said.

The Foundation for Upstate coordinated a capital campaign called “Give Hope a New Home,” which raised more than $17.4 million from gifts and pledges for some construction costs, equipment and patient amenities, and endowments, according to Upstate.

“This building will see people from the Canadian border to the Pennsylvania border to Albany to Rochester,” said Dr. John McCabe, CEO of Upstate University Hospital.

Upstate will also train the doctors who will care for cancer patients in the future, McCabe added.

The Cancer Center features 27 infusion chairs, four linear accelerator vaults for radiation therapy, and a high-tech intraoperative suite, which includes a 3T MRI.

The facility also includes a four-season, rooftop healing garden; meditation room; family-resource center; multidisciplinary-practice locations; and private space for genetic, financial, and nutrition-counseling services, according to Upstate.

The Cancer Center also houses many of Upstate’s outpatient-cancer services, such as the Dr. William J. Waters Center for Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders.

The facility also features new technology for treating the condition. Staff will use the Vero SBRT (Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy System) for advanced treatment of lung, liver, and prostate cancer.

Upstate is one of three institutions nationwide offering the Vero SBRT with the combination of advanced treatment and imaging technologies, the school said.

The machine is part of the George E. and Caryl Lee Johnson Radiation Oncology Center with the Cancer Center, according to a preview brochure that Upstate provided.

Contractors for the projects included Rochester–based LeChase Construction Services, LLC, which also has a Syracuse office; Syracuse–based Hueber-Breuer Construction Co., Inc.; and several others.

Philadelphia–based EwingCole designed the center, which is pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification at the silver level from the U.S. Green Building Council, according to Upstate.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com