Local elected officials, developers and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital representatives met in Sycamore Wednesday to herald the beginning of a charitable housing project.

To support its mission to find cures for childhood cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, St. Jude partnered with northern Illinois developer Silverthorne Homebuilders to build a home called the Chicagoland St. Jude Dream Home Showplace. That home, a 2,860-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom, three-car garage residence located at 609 Zagreb Ave., will be sold for the benefit of the hospital.

Jim Work, the founder of Silverthorne Homebuilders, said that when the home is sold to a private buyer, his company will donate the proceeds to St. Jude.

He said he jumped on the opportunity to partner with St. Jude as soon as they reached out.

“When you guys first called, I was like ‘Yeah, for sure.’ I didn’t even run it by the leadership team,” Works said.

Even though the new construction is being done as a part of a charitable effort, Works said he thinks the home could be worth as much as $800,000.

Silverthorne Homes officially broke ground on the project on Wednesday. They were joined by numerous contractors and several elected officials, including Sycamore Mayor Steve Braser, 1st and 3rd Ward Aldermen Alan Bauer and Marvin Barnes, and state Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore.

Braser said he was very happy to see the business-to-business charitable effort take place in Sycamore, and hopes more good things are generated by initiative.

“It’s absolutely wonderful that they chose us, and Mr. Work has chosen to do this in Sycamore,” Braser said. “He had other communities to go to.”

Jennifer Herrera, a St. Jude representative, said she looks forward to what comes from the project.

“It’s amazing what will happen on this ground,” Herrera said. “Because the majority of St. Jude funding comes from individual contributions and supports like all of you, St. Jude has the freedom to focus on what matters the most, which is saving kids regardless of their financial situation regarldess of their financial status and situation.”

Families of St. Jude patients never receive a bill for their treatments, travel, housing or food, according to a news release from the children’s research hospital.

Since it opened in 1962, treatments that St. Jude researchers have discovered have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80%, according to the news release.

Herrera said national sponsors such as Brizo, Shaw Industries, Trane, Bosch and Kichler have supported the hospital’s cause. Herrera and Work noted that other local companies working on the project have pledged to donate to the construction of the house.

Work said at least 21 businesses are donating part or all of their services and materials used during the home’s construction.

It’s also the first St. Jude Dream Home Showplace to be built in Illinois in nearly 10 years.

“It’s the first one in a long, long time,” Work said. “I know they have way back, but it’s just kind of cool that we’ve got the company to the point that we can do stuff like this. We couldn’t have imagined doing stuff like this when we first started in Sycamore.”