LAS VEGAS (AP) — A property restriction dating to 2003 could scuttle efforts to keep the Nevada Cancer Institute operating in Las Vegas.
Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada halted negotiations on Thursday after six months of talks with institute owner University of California San Diego Health System, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Comprehensive Cancer Centers wanted to lease more than one-fourth of the institute's flagship building, plus take on a sizable but unspecified number of patients and staff.
But a restriction placed at the time Howard Hughes Properties Inc. sold the property to the Nevada Cancer Institute allows only a nonprofit medical facility on the site.
Comprehensive Cancer Centers is a for-profit business.
UCSD Health System bought the Nevada Cancer Institute in January through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding.
James Kilber, executive director of Comprehensive Cancer, told the Review-Journal that weeks of talks to alter the restriction had ended fruitlessly.
"We were looking for a way to lease the space and provide oncological care. Unfortunately, without this waiver (of the restriction), that pretty much ends it for us. We did not want to see the demise of the Nevada Cancer Institute," he said.
The institute has a staff of 135 people and sees an average of 3,000 patients a year.
Comprehensive Cancer sees 17,000 patients a year. It is the largest oncology practice in Las Vegas.
James Sanchez, Comprehensive Cancer's practice president, told the Review-Journal that the institution would pursue other locations.
"We still have future planned expansion in northwest Las Vegas and Henderson. As it stands right now, this opportunity has gone up in smoke," he said.
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