RUSH-COPLEY PLANNING 45-ACRE CAMPUS IN YORKVILLE
$30M complex would include three buildings, 75,000 square ft

By H. Lee Murphy
December 22, 2005

(Crain's) — Aurora-based Rush-Copley Medical Center is planning a significant expansion to the southwest, with a proposal to construct a 45-acre health care campus in fast-growing Yorkville.

An affiliate of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Rush-Copley hopes to get approval from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board sometime next spring to erect a complex of three buildings that would encompass an urgent-care center for emergency room patients, a diagnostic center capable of a full range of examinations ranging from mammograms to MRIs, and physician offices.

Barry C. Finn, CEO of Rush-Copley, hopes to begin construction by next summer and open the first phase in late 2007 or early 2008. The complex initially will span 75,000 square feet or more and cost upwards of $30 million, he says. More facilities, including possibly a surgery center and a fitness club, could come later, he adds.

"If the community grows and residents are interested, we're prepared to consider more facilities down the road," Mr. Finn says, in a statement.

That's almost certain to happen. Kendall County is the state's fastest-growing county, with a current population estimated at about 75,000. Yet it lacks a full-scale hospital. Patients now travel to either Aurora or to Valley West Hospital in Sandwich, a small community facility in DeKalb County, for treatment of serious ailments.

The new Rush-Copley site is proposed on Ill. Hwy. 34 just west of the Kendall County Government Center in Yorkville. The city's population has doubled since 2000 to almost 13,000, and is expected to balloon further past 65,000 within the next 15 years, according to local officials. The village of Plano, five miles to the west, is undergoing similar growth pangs.

"Health care is the most important quality of life issue facing our community," says Lynn Dubajic, executive director of the Yorkville Economic Development Corp, in a statement. "In my opinion we've been underserved with health-care facilities until now. This new Rush-Copley complex will have a great positive impact here."

Competing health-care organizations have taken note. Edward Hospital in Naperville, Valley West in Sandwich, Provena Mercy in Aurora and Dreyer Medical Clinic in Aurora all maintain professional offices for physicians in Yorkville. But none has announced plans to expand to a complex of wide-ranging services such as Rush-Copley is proposing.

New-construction approvals from the Health Facilities Planning Board have often proved problematic of late for other hospitals hoping to expand around Chicago's suburbs, but Mr. Finn at Rush-Copley doesn't foresee any objections from the panel concerning Yorkville. "The community supports us and we meet all the guidelines the state has laid out," he says.

The Rush-Copley site is adjacent to a separate 100-acre parcel of farmland being offered up for residential development by the long-time land-owning Conover family. "The possibilities are very exciting for Yorkville," concludes Gail Fisher, a member of the Conover family.