Proposed cancer center at former Motorola site in Schaumburg gets early OK from state agency
Northwest Community Healthcare's plans for a $86.8 million cancer treatment center on a portion of the sprawling former Motorola Solutions campus in Schaumburg has cleared an important state regulatory hurdle.
The project was set to go before the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board next Tuesday, but board Chairwoman Debra Savage already signed off on a certificate of need permit July 2 - a milestone authorizing the building phase to begin.
Still, Northwest Community has to come back to the state agency for approval of design safety and standards, and is subject to occupancy inspections before becoming fully licensed. The hospital also has to file annual progress reports during planning and construction, and report that the project is financially committed to by July 2024, state officials said.
The preliminary state approval comes about two months after the Arlington Heights-based hospital submitted its 91-page permit application. The document detailed plans for the five-story, 105,000-square-foot medical office building - to be named the Northwest Community Hospital Cancer Center - on land the hospital would lease from Boler Properties at the sprawling Veridian development.
Local leaders and physicians have since written letters of support on behalf of the project, including Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes and state Sens. Ann Gillespie and Laura Murphy. The new cancer center also earned the endorsement of the American Cancer Society.
"We believe a dedicated cancer hospital that offers modern technological care, diagnostics, and treatment will improve the quality of care for all people in the Chicago metro, north, and northwest communities of Illinois," wrote Kathleen Goss, the organization's vice president for cancer support, in a letter to the state board.
The new cancer center would include clinical exam rooms for oncologists, a pharmacy, laboratory, imaging, research, specialty clinics and family meeting space. Hospital officials have been eyeing the site in Schaumburg since determining their current cancer treatment operations, in the basement of the 509-bed hospital on Central Road in Arlington Heights, is constrained by space.
The Schaumburg site also is seen as centrally located for physicians and medical personnel, and would provide a better option for the large percentage of patients that historically have gone to downtown Chicago for care, according to the hospital's application.
Construction would be funded through private borrowing and completed in March 2025, officials said.