County picks finalists for hospital campus redevelopment

Development teams including McCaffery Interests, MB Real Estate Services, Walsh Construction and Lend Lease have made the short list for the job of redeveloping the Cook County Hospital campus on Chicago’s West Side.

County officials are in the process of picking developers to implement a two-phase plan for the property just south of the Eisenhower Expressway between Damen Avenue and Wood Street. Three development groups have made the cut to build a clinic and office building on the campus, according to a statement:

• One led by Los Angeles-based CBRE that includes Chicago-based contractor and developer Clayco and architecture firm Gensler.
• Another led by Chicago-based MB Real Estate that includes Walsh Construction of Chicago and architecture firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill.
• A third one led by Navigant Consulting and including contractor Power Construction and architecture firm Perkins & Will, all based in Chicago.

The county also has picked three finalists to redevelop the old Cook County Hospital, a dilapidated nearly century-old Beaux Arts building empty since 2002. County officials want to redevelop the building and surrounding property into a mixed-use complex. The three finalists are:

• A consortium led by MB Real Estate that includes Walsh Construction and Skidmore Owings & Merrill.
• A team led by Australian construction and development giant Lend Lease that includes Perkins & Will.
• A group led by Chicago-based McCaffery. Chicago-based Antunovich Associates is the group’s architect, while W.E. O’Neil is its contractor.

“We’re excited by the opportunity to leverage the value of this real estate while also improving the competitive position of the Cook County Health,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said in the statement. “We have had great interest from the development community and look forward to seeing their creative development proposals shortly.”

The county expects to pick winners for the two projects in the fourth quarter.

Read the article at Crain’s Chicago Business.