CHAPEL HILL — A UNC-Chapel Hill committee backed a $1.25 million increase in advance-planning authority for an addition and renovation at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, bringing total planning authority to $2 million.
The university’s Sept. 23 Budget, Finance and Infrastructure Committee packet says the increase would be funded with donations and gifts. The initial $750,000 authority, approved in July 2025, paid for a feasibility study that identified preferred sites and estimated costs.
The next phase is intended to confirm the program, cost and schedule and select a construction manager at risk, according to the packet. The committee action remains subject to a full Board of Trustees vote and concerns planning only; UNC has not selected a final location or authorized construction.
An earlier UNC Facilities solicitation listed a $163.7 million project budget and three options under study: add 60,000 square feet in a three-story vertical expansion, replace and expand the building on its current site, or build a new facility elsewhere on the School of Medicine campus.
That solicitation says the original facility opened in 1981, received an addition in 1994 and is in fair-to-poor condition, with major building systems nearing the end of their expected service lives. UNC said the project is intended to add flexible laboratories and instructional space and support recruitment of researchers and clinicians.
Triangle Business Journal independently reported the committee action and described the potential expansion as an approximately $300 million project. That figure differs from the university’s older $163.7 million solicitation budget; both remain preliminary planning estimates, not approved construction spending.
The business consequence is a new planning milestone for a major Chapel Hill research facility. The work could create a substantial future design and construction pipeline while expanding laboratory capacity for UNC’s cancer-research enterprise, but the committee action remains subject to the full Board vote and does not authorize construction.
Image: Contextual laboratory photograph by Rhoda Baer for the National Cancer Institute, public domain. The researchers and facility shown are not UNC or UNC Lineberger. The image was cropped, visibly labeled and given the standard NC Business Desk footer; no generative content.