Mayo Clinic's proton beam center digging in deep

That's a big hole and it is going deeper. Construction of Mayo Clinic's $185 million Richard O. Jacobson Building to house a new proton beam therapy center is really digging in as the downtown Rochester project rolls on.

 

This project at the southwest corner of Second Street Northwest and First Avenue Northwest means a boost of about 500 jobs for local construction workers for the next three to four years.

Knutson Construction along with a national firm called Gilbane is building the complex.

The first phase is for 220,000-square-feet with two floors above ground and two levels below for the massive nuclear equipment required for the "pencil beam" proton treatment. Hence the deep hole.

Mayo Clinic also has conceptual plans on the table for the possible second phase to build a 17-story tower on top of the Jacobson complex.

With 19 stories above ground, the building would fall just two floors short of the Gonda Building's 21.