IEMA: State not using former Itasca hotel in COVID-19 response
State officials considered using an Itasca hotel to house first responders on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they said Friday they've taken that option off the table.
Haymarket Center purchased the former Holiday Inn on Monday for $7.5 million. The nonprofit addiction treatment center bought the 7-acre site along Irving Park Road as it seeks village zoning approval to transform the building into a 240-bed facility for patients with substance-use disorders.
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency approached Haymarket about making the hotel available to first responders who want to self-quarantine, a spokesperson for the Chicago-based provider said.
The state evaluated the site, but "at this time we do not anticipate adding this facility to the state plan," IEMA spokeswoman Rebecca Clark said via email Friday. The former hotel "does not meet the state's immediate needs for use as an alternate housing site," she wrote.
Clark provided no further details. But the Haymarket representative said the proposal targeted first responders and front-line workers and aligned with its mission to assist during a health crisis.
Wheaton College is providing apartments for police, firefighters and paramedics to self-isolate during the coronavirus pandemic. The school announced Thursday the free housing will allow first responders to self-quarantine as a preventive measure, as well as after possible exposure to the virus.
The first units in the Terrace Apartments three blocks from the main campus will be available early next week.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot last week unveiled the first 500 beds of a planned 3,000-bed field hospital at McCormick Place. The convention center could be ready for patients as early as next week.
The state also is reopening the shuttered Sherman Hospital campus in Elgin, Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park and MetroSouth Hospital in Blue Island.
Haymarket has been trying for months to get village approval to convert the hotel into a recovery center, a proposal that has faced stiff opposition in the town of 9,800.
Plan commissioners started hosting public hearings in October on Haymarket's proposal, but the process has been put on hold - first because of a lawsuit Haymarket filed against the village that was dismissed, and now because of state-imposed attendance restrictions.
Mayor Jeff Pruyn said the village only learned recently that Haymarket was seeking to buy the hotel before receiving zoning approvals.
But the Haymarket spokesperson said the transaction was in the works for months and that the plan was always to shutter the hotel after the purchase while the village reviewed its request.
• Daily Herald staff writer Robert Sanchez contributed to this report.