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From left, Huntsman Cancer Institute CEO Mary Beckerle, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, Vineyard Mayor Julie Fullmer, Huntsman Cancer Foundation CEO Peter Huntsman and philanthropist Karen Haight Huntsman break ground on a new cancer center on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Vineyard.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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Huntsman Cancer Institute CEO Mary Beckerle speaks at the groundbreaking for a new cancer center on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Vineyard.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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University of Utah President Taylor Randall speaks at the groundbreaking for a new cancer center on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Vineyard.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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A banner commemorates the Huntsman Cancer Institute breaking ground on a new cancer center Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Vineyard.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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The late John Huntsman Sr. had a vision for the Huntsman Cancer Institute campus at the University of Utah few could imagine.

He wanted to defeat cancer and turn the facility into an upscale hotel.

“He called his friend Bill Marriott to tell him, ‘When we cure this thing — this place is so nice, when you move (into) it, it’s not going to be a Marriott, it’s going to be a Ritz-Carlton,'” recalled Peter Huntsman, Huntsman Sr.’s son and CEO of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation.

Twenty-six years after the Huntsman Cancer Institute opened, Huntsman Sr.’s dream to eradicate cancer has yet to be realized.

But a second facility, the Huntsman Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center in Vineyard, will soon join in on the fight.

Huntsman representatives and political and education leaders broke ground on the new center Tuesday afternoon in front of hundreds of attendees, and Peter Huntsman’s vision for it is similar to his father’s.

“As we look here in Vineyard, I believe there are children that may well see these buildings someday being made redundant,” he said during the groundbreaking. “The research may very well change to Alzheimer’s, very well may change to something other than cancer.”

Scheduled to open in 2028, the plan is to build a 272,000-square-foot cancer center with a five-story clinical care building and a three-story research building in the Utah City development in Vineyard.

With a price tag of $400 million, it’s the largest investment the Huntsman Cancer Institute has ever made and also the largest sum of money the state of Utah has committed to the institute. The state Legislature allocated $75 million to the project in 2024.

The foundation hopes the new facility will ease the travel burden for cancer patients in Utah County and parts of rural Utah and expand the size of Huntsman’s research programs.

The plan is to work alongside the University of Utah, Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University to put the cancer center on the forefront of research and innovation, offering access to clinical trials, computational science and data analysis programs that utilize artificial intelligence,” Peter Huntsman said.

“This is going to be a rapid expansion in a radical new direction. They’re not going to be the wet labs and so forth; this is going to be about computation research. I predict in the next 10 years we will see breakthroughs through personnel who are not medically trained.”

Fueled by Huntsman Cancer Institute CEO Mary Beckerle, the idea was originally called “project purple,” Peter Huntsman said, because it required rivals Utah and BYU to work together to create a top-notch research and educational center.

Utah President Taylor Randall, BYU President Shane Reese and UVU interim President Jim Mortensen were all on hand Tuesday to celebrate the partnership.

“Imagine for a second a BYU Cougar and University of Utah Ute not talking about holding calls, but actually talking about holding on to people’s lives,” Randall said.

He added that the facility will look to create research advancements in detection and personalized medicine.

“With the studies that will go on here and the studies that are going on, we can now say, ‘If I look at your genetic makeup, we probably ought to only look at two (treatment plans).’ And not only does that target those treatments, but it saves you a lot of pain going through the others. So that is coming here,” Randall said.

The facility will also serve as a pillar for Vineyard, as the city continues its rapid ascent in population growth and development.

“We’ve become one of Utah’s fastest growing, most connected communities, and today we’re breaking ground on something that I believe has never been done before, a thriving community co-created side by side with a world-renowned cancer center,” Vineyard Mayor Julie Fullmer said. “Just imagine the possibilities, the synergy of health and innovation, of healing and home. It’s transformational, and imagine the lives that will be changed, because together we decided to build this place.”