Two healthcare facilities developed by Northbrook, Illinois-based MedProperties Group have been named finalists in Healthcare Real Estate Insights’ annual, national awards program. MedProperties Group, a medical real estate investor, developer and operations platform, developed the facilities in Burr Ridge and Hinsdale, Illinois.
“We are honored to have these excellent healthcare facilities included among the finalists in this prestigious and highly competitive annual awards program,” said Matthew Campbell, CEO and founding partner, MedProperties Group. “These two very different projects demonstrate our team’s vision, creativity and wide range of capabilities, whether working on a ground-up development or the repurposing of existing facilities.”
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Day/Rehab Outpatient Center
A finalist in the “Best New Development, Medical Office Buildings (MOBs) and Other Outpatient Facilities, Less than 25,000 square feet” category, the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Day/Rehab Outpatient Center is a one-story, 25,000 square foot MOB located in Chicago’s western suburb of Burr Ridge. The facility, which opened this April, is in a transitional district with strict zoning guidelines that held buildings to a residential scale and character. However, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab desired to build a modern, dynamic building that embodied their international reputation for groundbreaking treatment.
In the spirit of the client’s award-winning rehabilitation and research hospital in downtown Chicago (the former Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago), MedProperties Group knew the expectations for the new MOB would be high. Together with architect HDR as well as Krusinski Construction, MedProperties Group worked extensively with the client, village planning commission and neighbors to review massing, scale and materials, thereby successfully bridging varying objectives. This collaborative approach resulted in transforming an underutilized business/retail center into a world-class rehabilitation destination.
The MOB’s design incorporates three rectangular volumes, stepped to fit within an angled setback, each housing one of three program elements: outpatient, day rehabilitation and shared space. Diagonally folded butterfly roofs meet the village’s requirement for a pitched roof and provide daylight through clerestory windows to the therapy spaces below. Creatively interpreted requirements for residential materials translated into volumes crafted from a unique blend of bricks with applied slurry to reference adjacent existing buildings. Garapa wood, allowed to patina to a silver color, together with pewter-colored metal, provide warmth and will ensure the building ages gracefully over time.
“The new outpatient center is truly unique, providing a state-of-the-art design to match the innovative treatment for AbilityLab’s patients,” Campbell said. ” The success of the project has led to AbilityLab hiring MedProperties Group for its next rehabilitation outpatient development in Homewood, Illinois.”
Salt Creek Medical Campus
A finalist in the “Best Renovated or Repurposed Healthcare Facility” category, Salt Creek Medical Campus is a 194,321-square-foot MOB campus, spread out over five buildings, in the western Chicago suburb of Hinsdale. Starting out as Salt Creek Office Park, the multi-building office complex was originally built in the ‘70s for suburban businesses.
MedProperties Group began assembling the buildings within the Park in 2012, starting with the acquisitions of 12 Salt Creek, 907 N. Elm Street, 901 N Elm Street and 11 Salt Creek Lane, which was anchored by AMITA Health, one of the few existing medical tenants in the Park. The site assemblage also included a large campus-like pond and lawn that MedProperties rezoned into an additional development parcel on which a single-tenant, 30,000-square-foot MOB was constructed for Edward-Elmhurst Health Systems, the largest healthcare system in the western corridor.
Rebranded as the Salt Creek Medical Campus, MedProperties Group converted the buildings to medical use, created wayfinding and beautified the campus grounds. The iconic face of the redevelopment is a two-story atrium, a symbol of the stunning transformation the Park has undergone to become a preferred location for leading health systems and specialty practices, including Edward-Elmhurst Health System, AMITA Health System and Hinsdale Surgical Center.
At the time of purchase, other medical office alternatives throughout the western suburbs were typically dated, single-location office facilities populated with a mix of office and medical tenants. With a vision to transform the campus into a regional medical destination, MedProperties Group was drawn to the characteristics of the site, its campus-like setting, vintage brick façades and outstanding location with direct access to the Tri-State Tollway.
The former site—once at only 31 percent occupancy and in desperate need of capital improvements—has undergone an impressive transformation through creative strategies, injection of capital and new property management and leasing teams. The repositioned, repurposed campus now has 100 percent medical tenants with a total occupancy of 82 percent.
