WEST CHICAGO, Ill. (AP) — The global financial meltdown has delayed the timeline for the construction of a $159 million proton therapy center affiliated with Northern Illinois University, but that should not jeopardize the eventual completion of the state-of-the-art facility, center officials said Thursday.

Market conditions have made financing difficult, but officials from Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center LLC have affirmed the project is going forward, said Gary Mack, spokesman for the center.

"The construction of the Northern Illinois Proton Center is not endangered at all; in fact, the board today confirmed that it is moving full speed ahead with construction for the center," Mack said. "But we may have to alter the timeline because of the global meltdown of the financial markets, much the same way every other construction project is experiencing right now."

Proton therapy is a form of noninvasive radiation therapy for certain pediatric and adult cancers currently unavailable in Illinois, according to the center.

There is no new completion date for the 110,000-square-foot facility, which began construction in June in West Chicago and was originally projected to be finished in spring 2010, Mack said.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board granted a permit to NIU and NIPTRC in February to build the center, with a deadline of February 2010. In August, NIPTRC got preliminary approval of its request to issue bonds through the Illinois Finance Authority.

John Lewis, executive director of the center, said NIPTRC intended to return to the IFA for a final resolution allowing NIPTRC to sell its bonds on the market. Then the market turned sour.

"The market for the tax-exempt bonds we need is just not there right now," Lewis said.

Underwriters expect financial conditions to improve in the spring, making a bond sale possible in a few months, Mack said.

Many developers that would normally try to get bond issues through the state Financing Authority have halted their requests, said IFA spokeswoman Diane Hamburger.

"Nationwide, the tax-exempt bond market continues to be volatile and difficult to enter for many," Hamburger said.

NIPTRC still has $6 million to $8 million to continue some construction work, Lewis said.

"We are going over the schedule with the general contractor," he said.

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