Mayo to spend $3.5B on projects

The Mayo Clinic said Thursday that it will invest $700 million a year in capital projects over the next five years, ramping up spending after cutting back when the financial crisis hit. More than half the money will go toward projects the Rochester-based health system already has in the works. But executives said they're ready to put hundreds of millions of additional dollars into new projects, many aimed at finding ways to put promising medical breakthroughs on a fast track by channeling more people, equipment, research or technology toward the effort.