Boca Raton Community Hospital in Boca Raton, Florida, has announced a $20 million pledge from Harvey and Phyllis Sandler to support one-third of the cost of a planned cancer center, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

The gift announcement kicked off the capital campaign for the 87,000-square-foot center, which will be located across the street from a planned new hospital and is scheduled to open in the fall of 2007. Emerging from a tough four years, during which it lost roughly $65 million, Boca Community Hospital has released financial reports showing a $1.5 million loss in its most recent fiscal year, a significant improvement over the $36 million deficit it wracked up the year before.

Sandler, a member of the hospital's board, credited hospital president Gary Strack, who stepped into the job three years ago, for leading the recovery. "I think that the commitment is certainly there," Sandler told the Sun-Sentinel. "I hope, and so does our CEO and all our board members, that this will be the premier facility in all of Florida, or at least one of them."

The Sandlers began donating to philanthropic causes after Harvey Sandler, founder of New York City-based Sandler Capital Management, survived a brain tumor. Phyllis Sandler worked as a financial planner for a life insurance company. The couple recently sold the Ritz-Carlton Hotel they owned in Puerto Rico and now are semi-retired.