Jim Fair
Jimmy and Marsha Gibbs attended GSP's announcement Tuesday that it will take over as the fixed base operator beginning on Jan. 1, 2017.
The $65 million state-of-the-art Gibbs Cancer Center and Research Center in Greer is scheduled to open in 2018.
Jim Fair
The Gibbs Cancer Center on Highway 14 features Cyberknife surgery.
Jim Fair
An overhead corridor will connect the Pelham Medical Center to the 7-story cancer center.
The Greenville-Spartanburg Airport District becoming the fixed base operator for commercial and general aviation under the Cerulean brand is another avenue for cancer patients having access to the cancer institute.
“One of the reasons I thought to put the research center at Pelham was because we are sitting here next to an international airport,” Jimmy Gibbs, benefactor and pioneer of the Gibbs Cancer Centers. “You are going to need that to make that hospital and cancer center a success.”
GSP officials introduced Tuesday becoming the fixed base operator when Stevens Aviation’s lease expires Dec. 31.
The four hangars will revert to GSP. Two new hangars will be built – a 30,000-square-foot bulk hangar for aircraft storage and a 17,000-square-foot corporate hangar.
“You are going to have to attract people that come in on private jets,” Gibbs said. “A lot of these people are too sick to get on commercial jets. And a lot of people can’t fly commercial because of the air quality.”
The $65 million, 198,000-square-foot state-of-the-art Cancer Center and Research Institute is scheduled to be completed in mid-2018.
The seven-story facility will be an expansion of the existing Gibbs Cancer Center on Highway 14. An overhead corridor will connect the Pelham Medical Center to the cancer center.
Access to GSP is part of the vision Gibbs and cancer officials had when it opened the Gibbs Cancer Center in Greer. Economic officials also envision a hotel and restaurants nearby to house visiting families, doctors and clinicians.
“I think the Gibbs Center at Pelham is going to be an economic driver, or at least a big part of the cog in the wheel,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs said he appeared Tuesday at the Cerulean announcement to encourage Spartanburg and Greenville counties to work together.
“(Gibbs Research Center) is a vision of love,” Gibbs said. “I this (FBO) is a big deal and I think the cancer center is a big deal. The upstate has a lot going for it, now we just need to work more closely together.”