Rush, Novak Plan $70M West Side Facility

An old West Side Sears department store may be the new site of a $70 million state-of-the-art medical facility and a grocery store.

Rush University System for Health aims to open a 60,000-square-foot outpatient care center at 1630 North Harlem Avenue, the Chicago Tribune reported. Plans for the grocery store on the property have not yet been announced.

Chicago-based Novak Construction is the developer of the project. In December 2022, Novak announced plans for the medical building, grocery store and a residential complex, with plans to reveal the health care operator later on. The development is expected to cost about $100 million in total.

The new Rush facility will rise three stories and include about 90 exam, consultation and procedure rooms, an urgent care center on the ground floor and 200 parking spaces.

“This is about reinvesting in this community and bringing state-of-the-art care,” Rush Oak Park Hospital CEO Dr. Dino Rumoro said at a news conference.

Alderman Chris Taliaferro, who represents the 29th Ward, added that the Rush venture will add more job opportunities to the community, but emphasized that it will provide a centrally located healthcare facility to an area that’s been lacking one.

Rush must get permission from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board before proceeding with construction. Once gaining approval, construction is scheduled to begin in the fall, and the project could be completed in its entirety as soon as January 2025.

With office buildings and retailers struggling to fill vacancies, investors and developers such as Novak are beginning to explore other endeavors outside of the traditional commercial real estate realm, which has propped up the medical office and life sciences sectors. Chicago megadevelopments in the works have made creating spaces for such industries a focal point of their plans.

Related Midwest recently transferred an acre within its “78” megadevelopment to the University of Illinois, which will be used for a $250 million, 261,000-square-foot research and lab facility. And the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative is also embarking on a $250 million life sciences research hub, while the $3.8 billion Bronzeville Lakefront project will include medical research space, as well.

Novak is also redeveloping another former Sears store at 4712-4738 West Irving Park Road into 206 apartments, though construction was stopped and restarted due to city officials issuing a stop-work order for building activity performed on the site without a full permit.

— Quinn Donoghue