GRAND RAPIDS - The building trades are bringing out of the ground what will be this city's largest development in the last decade.

Spectrum Health's Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion will anchor the six-acre Michigan Street Development, which will also provide space for three offices towers of five to seven stories for life sciences and technology research. A 2,300-space parking deck will also be erected. The price tag for all the work: $200 million.

The cancer pavilion, itself with a price tag of $78 million, will be a six-story, 200,000-square-foot facility scheduled to open in the fall of 2007 on Michigan between Coit and Division streets.

"It's undoubtedly a substantial project, but nothing we haven't seen before," said Joe Hooker, development services manager for the project's general contractor, Christman Construction. "It's been a long time coming together. So far we've been very pleased, we've had a very good start."

The construction process has begun with a below-grade parking deck - itself a $61 million venture that will also serve nearby Spectrum Health and the Van Andel Institute. An existing building on the site will be demolished and replaced. The entire site, Hooker said, is challenging because it is about 1,100 feet long, but one end is about 100 feet lower than the other. In the past, the site was used for parking, a Burger King, a brewery and an armory depot, Hooker said.

Spectrum Health sees this development as an opportunity to streamline and strengthen its health care delivery process for cancer patients in West Michigan.

"The Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion is the cornerstone that will allow us to take cancer care in West Michigan to the next level," said Matt Van Vranken, president, Spectrum Health Hospitals. "This facility will enable us to intensify our work on clinical research and our multi-specialty approach, where newly diagnosed cancer patients can meet with multiple physician subspecialists to review their case and receive a treatment plan - all in the same day."

The pavilion will enable Spectrum Health to bring together the majority of its Grand Rapids cancer services. Radiation treatment, medical oncology, chemotherapy, research, cancer multispecialty clinics, a genetic evaluation clinic, research labs, physician offices, a consumer library and administrative offices are among the services that will be located there. The building will also house a multi-floor life healing garden, and will be connected to other nearby buildings via tunnels, walkways or skywalks.

Spectrum Health cares for nearly 3,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients each year, or about two-thirds of all cancer patients in Kent County. One of Spectrum Health's goals is to use this new facility as a focus in expanding its cancer services into a regional resource for West Michigan.

Hooker said the most difficult part in the development phase of the project was "creating a critical mass of necessary users" for the space. "But in the end, this development is going to attract jobs in the health care and medical technology areas, which are the jobs this area would like to have," Hooker said.

Completion is expected in 2010. Until then, a few construction jobs will be created, too.

RODBUSTER Tom Van Niel of Iron Workers Local 340 ties re-rod for a below-grade parking deck at the massive Michigan Street Development in Grand Rapids.