Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital is advancing its plans to build a second hospital in Downers Grove.

Hospital officials held an open house Thursday night to answer questions from the public.

The Downers Grove Village Council added hospitals as a permitted use March 3 to the Esplanade at Locust Point planned-unit development, which is where Lurie wants to build the hospital.

The development is west of Interstate 355 and south of Butterfield Road. The 100-acre site, which began construction in 1990, contains hotels, office buildings, restaurants and stores. Lurie would buy the land on which the hospital would be located.

The hospital still needs to submit a detailed site plan, including architectural drawings and engineering, for approval by the village’s planning and zoning commission and the village council. It has not submitted such plans yet, a Lurie spokesman said Friday.

The hospital also needs to get a certificate of need from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. It has not applied for that yet.

At Thursday’s meeting, hospital officials talked about their plans for a 210,000-square-foot hospital and a 60,000-square-foot outpatient treatment center. The hospital could have 12 intensive-care-unit beds and would have a helicopter pad.

In response to a question about whether money from the state government or property taxes would be used to pay for the construction, Chief Financial Officer Alex Miller said, “No.”

Miller said Lurie would pay for it with existing cash, gifts, and by borrowing via the sale of bonds.

Lurie publicly announced the project Jan. 28. The next week, Downers Grove’s planning and zoning commission voted on the request to amend the PUD, and a Lurie attorney spoke at the meeting.

Shanley said there is no pediatric-specific emergency department in the Western suburbs, and that patients do better when they receive specialty care.

In January, a spokesman said the hospital would be for “low-acuity” patients — including those who need supportive care, such as oxygen treatment for influenza and RSV infections, or IV fluids for dehydration due to gastrointestinal viruses. It would not admit children undergoing complex medical treatments, such as for cancer or organ transplants. It would have 50 inpatient beds and an emergency department, Dr. Thomas Shanley, Lurie’s president and chief executive officer, said at the time.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20260313/health-care/lurie-gives-new-details-as-it-advances-plan-for-childrens-hospital-in-downers-grove/