Children’s Memorial Hospital on Friday said it has narrowed its search for a new home to five sites–one of which is believed to be the nearby shuttered Columbus Hospital–as it rolls out preliminary plans for a larger, 343-bed facility featuring private patient rooms.
The hospital is scouting a final group of sites in an area bounded by the Chicago River on the south, Belmont Avenue on the north, the Kennedy Expressway on the west and Chicago’s lakefront on the east. The new facility is expected to cost between $600 million and $800 million, the hospital said.
Children’s officials would not disclose its final list of sites, which has been whittled from an original list of 25.
At a hospital board meeting Thursday night members were briefed on plans to increase capacity by 30 percent and launch a fund-raising campaign.
Like many large community and teaching hospitals, Children’s multibuilding campus, which covers nearly eight acres, has been cobbled together during the course of many years.
“The bottom line is we want to bring our campus together in one location that allows us to be more efficient, to further collaboration between clinical and research and ease the logistical burden on families,” said Children’s spokeswoman Kathleen Ellis.
Sources say the Columbus location at 2520 N. Lakeview Ave. is a popular option because it would allow the hospital to stay in Lincoln Park, its home since 1882. Children’s already owns two former Columbus buildings, located at 2515 N. Clark St. and 467 W. Deming Pl., both of which were purchased from Columbus’ former owner. Meanwhile, the current developer of the Columbus property, American Invsco Corp., has had long-delayed plans for a large residential development.
Children’s executives want to avoid their current problem of having doctors’ offices and research facilities scattered several blocks apart. A new facility would likely eliminate the inconvenience of patients’ having to walk several blocks or take a shuttle bus between its buildings.
Four other potential sites would address space and patient access issues and three would result in the facility leaving Lincoln Park, sources said. They include locations:
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– In the Streeterville neighborhood near Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where several parcels are becoming available due to that medical center’s expansion in recent years. Northwestern Memorial and Children’s already have research and teaching affiliations with Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, also located in the Streeterville neighbhorhood.
– On the east side of Elston Avenue and south of Fullerton Avenue owned by prominent Democratic Party fundraiser Fred Eychaner, who is president of Chicago-based Newsweb Corp., a holding company that owns radio stations and printing presses. The Elston Avenue parcel is an irregularly shaped site that also has frontage along Fullerton Avenue, but does not include the corner. Located along the Chicago River, the property includes the former Lands’ End outlet facility at 2317 N. Elston Ave.
– Part of a large site called Kinzie Station-North, located at Halsted and Kinzie Streets, owned by a group of developers that includes Fifield Cos. and Jameson Realty Group Inc.
– A second Lincoln Park location that could not be confirmed. Speculation has centered on a site across Lincoln Avenue from the current facility where the hospital has a large parking garage. Nearby property owners say they have been contacted by Children’s about selling in the last year.
Under preliminary plans Children’s will expand to 275 private rooms–each with one patient bed–by 2012 from the current 250-bed operation, which has two beds in most patient rooms, Ellis said.
By 2017 the new Children’s would increase to 343 beds, adding 38 additional private rooms, eight clinical research beds and 22 observational beds.
“One reason to go to private rooms is capacity, but the other important aspect is how important it is by having private rooms to help the families cope with the stressful time and improve the well-being of the patient,” Ellis said.
Children’s main building at Fullerton Avenue at Lincoln Avenue is about 50 years old, and small enough to force the medical center to turn away more than 300 children a year. Because of space constraints Children’s turned away 329 children in its fiscal 2004, which ended Aug. 31. That is an increase of 75 percent from the 188 turned away in 2003.
Children’s has yet to iron out all aspects of funding for the hospital but said $400 million will come from a massive fund-raising campaign.
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Children’s next home
– Footprint will be between 80,000 and 130,000 square feet (up from 85,000 square feet)
– 275 beds by 2012, 343 beds by 2017 (up from 250)
– Project will cost between $600 million and $800 million
Source: Children’s Memorial Hospital
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Potential hospital sites
Proposed sites for a new Children’s Memorial Hospital have been reduced to five approximate locations.
1. Former Columbus Hospital
2. Near current Children’s Memorial Hospital
3. Near Northwestern Memorial Hospital
4. Near Elston Avenue and Fullerton Avenue intersection
5. Southeast corner of Halsted and Kinzie Avenues
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