Moffitt to benefit from stimulus plan

Tampa, FL -- An expansion project at Moffit Cancer Center is getting on the fast track thanks to the newly passed stimulus plan.

Moffitt is outgrowing the amount of room it has on the University of South Florida campus.

Moffitt will compete for $1 billion in grants from the National Institutes of Health to expand two new floors for Moffit's M2Gen project, creating 300 jobs in Tampa Bay. 200 of those would be in construction, and the other 100 in research.

"The intent of the recovery plan is job creation, says U.S. Representative Kathy Castor. "And it's not just construction jobs, we wanna create jobs for the 21st century in science and technology. These are the high wage jobs that our students will stay in the Tampa Bay area for and our community will thrive with the higher wage jobs."

The average construction worker would make $50,000 a year during the expansion, and a researcher would make $70,000.

The bottom two floors of the building are almost complete, but the top two will remain unoccupied until funding is secured from the stimulus plan.

M2Gen is a public private partnership between pharmaceutical giant Merck and Company, Hillsborough County, the state of Florida, and the city of Tampa. It will be the headquarters for Moffitt's nationwide cancer genetic profiling effort. Genetic profiling is analyzing DNA in samples of a person's body tissue or fluid. The profiling helps doctors tailor treatment options for cancer patients. For more on M2Gen, click here.

President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Tuesday which provides the $1 billion for grants to construct, renovate, or repair existing medical research facilities like Moffitt.

Other expansion projects at Moffitt could create 3,000 construction jobs and 1,200 new permanent health and biotechnology jobs.