UH Board of Regents authorizes negotiations with Townsend Capital for Cancer Research Center project in Kakaako

University of Hawaiʻi
Contact:
Carolyn Tanaka, (808) 956-9803
Mia Noguchi, (808) 956-9095
External Affairs & University Relations
Posted: Mar 30, 2005

PEARL CITY, Oʻahu — At a special meeting held today at Leeward Community College, the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents authorized the university administration to enter into a real estate development agreement with privately held real estate investment firm Townsend Capital, LLC (Townsend), for the development of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi project on the Kakaʻako waterfront.

Townsend‘s team includes the design and technical team of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership and Architects Hawaiʻi Ltd, and the general contractor, McCarthy Building Companies, Ltd.

UH Interim President David McClain stated, "The selection of Townsend Capital LLC is an important milestone toward the university‘s goal of improving the quality of cancer care, and the volume of cancer research, in our state. I look forward to a timely and successful conclusion of our negotiations for a comprehensive real estate development agreement for the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi‘s new facilities."

Dr. Carl-Wilhelm Vogel, director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi, added, "I am impressed with the qualifications and experience of the Townsend team. The team includes nationally recognized architectural firms and general contractors with pertinent experience in designing and building cancer centers across the country."

Townsend is a privately held real estate investment firm headquartered in Baltimore, Md., with offices in Missouri, Colorado and New Jersey. The firm has provided custom solutions to the real estate needs and issues of universities, university research parks, health care systems, and corporate clients for more than 30 years.

Representative clients of the firm include the University of Pennsylvania, Children‘s Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Washington University in St. Louis, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Tyco International.

Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZGF) Partnership is a 350-person full-service architectural firm headquartered in Portland, Ore., with offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., with a diverse range of public and private projects located in urban markets. Representative clients include the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the National Institutes of Health, John Hopkins University, Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the University of California. It is the architect for the Moores University of California at San Diego (UCSD) Cancer Center, which opens next month, and the Bishop Museum Science Learning Center, which is currently under construction.

Architects Hawaiʻi has provided architecture services in Hawaiʻi for more than three generations. The firm has a range of experience in institutional projects, including the new John A. Burns School of Medicine, The Queen‘s Medical Center, Kuakini Medical Center and the Spark M. Matsunaga Veterans Medical and Regional Center.

Townsend‘s general contractor, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., was founded in 1864 and is one of Americaʻs oldest privately held construction firms. Headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., McCarthy also has seven full service offices located across the country. It recently completed construction of the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, which was designed by ZGF, a project that is closely comparable to the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi project. As a joint venture partner with Kiewit Pacific, McCarthy will commence construction of a new facility for Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center in mid-2005.

Approval of a developer is the first in a series of steps toward the development of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi project in Kakaʻako. Townsend will now enter into negotiations with the university for a comprehensive real estate development agreement that will cover planning, design, financing, construction and management of the project.

The university received 15 responses to its Request for Qualifications (RFQ) issued in December 2004 from an impressive slate of companies and development teams across the country interested in developing the new facility for the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi. The facility, which could be about 360,000 square feet in size, is proposed to be developed on a vacant 5.5 acre site owned by the Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority, the state agency responsible for the redevelopment of Kakaʻako.

For more information, visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/oci