Northwestern Medicine plans to use a whopping $225 million donation to help build a new medical office building for cancer care in Orland Park.
The gift comes from the St. George Foundation – a private foundation that shares with Northwestern a “desire to advance the health of residents in the southwest region,” Northwestern said in a statement.
In all, the new four-story office building, along with a 484-car parking garage, would cost $275 million. The facility would be the latest entry into a race among Chicago area health systems to expand their cancer offerings to meet growing demand for the care – due to an aging population and advances that have led to people living longer after a diagnosis.
The new facility would sit on the Northwestern Medicine Orland Park campus, which is already home to Northwestern’s St. George Cancer Institute, according to an application for the project filed with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. The project must gain approval from that board before it may move forward.
The new construction would replace the current institute facility, which would be “repurposed for other clinical services,” a Northwestern spokesperson said in an email.
The facility would include infusion stations, diagnostic imaging and radiation treatment, among other services.
If the state board approves the project, construction could start in October, and be completed by the end of March 2030.
The donor behind the project, the St. George Foundation, also known as the St. George Corporation, had operated the former Palos Community Hospital, through Palos Health, before the Palos hospital became part of Northwestern in 2021. The corporation previously donated $51 million to Northwestern for the Northwestern Medicine St. George Cancer Institute.
The idea behind the new facility is to help Northwestern meet current and future demand for cancer care in the South suburbs, Northwestern wrote in the application.
The number of people ages 65 and older in the area is projected to grow by more than 10% over the next five years, according to the application. Many people also live for years after a cancer diagnosis, necessitating more long-term care, the application said.
“Expanding care in Orland Park would improve timeliness, equity, and convenience while supporting better outcomes,” Northwestern wrote in its application.
If approved, the Orland Park facility would join a growing list of new cancer care facilities in the Chicago area.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has projected a 49% increase in annual cancer cases between 2015 and 2050. People are also living longer after cancer diagnoses, with 70% surviving for at least five years, up from about half in the mid-1970s, according to an American Cancer Society report released earlier this year.
Advocate Lutheran General recently got approval from the state board to spend $99 million, in large part to build an addition to an outpatient building on its Park Ridge campus to expand cancer care.
UChicago Medicine is constructing a 575,000-square-foot freestanding cancer hospital on Chicago’s South Side.
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Endeavor Health is adding a two-story addition to its Knowles Cancer Center at Endeavor Health Elmhurst Hospital, and converting a floor of the Galter Medical Pavilion at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital into a cancer space with additional rooms.
Rush University System for Health opened a 55,000-square-foot cancer center in Lisle in 2024, and has made investments in cancer care at its other facilities as well.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital is also hoping to build a new tower on its Streeterville campus with more than 200 beds that would also consolidate oncology services now spread across five buildings on the hospital campus, though that construction project has yet to be approved by the state board.