Development ramps up in Illinois Medical District, and landlord looks to cash out

The owner of a 306-unit apartment building in the Illinois Medical District is looking to cash in on increased development and investment in the area.

The Chicago Dwellings Association listed the 18-story Medical Center Apartments at 1926 West Harrison Street, hoping to get $31 million for the property, according to Crain’s.

The nonprofit affordable housing developer, which owns other apartment buildings in Chicago, hired CBRE to market the property. The brokerage is pitching it as a redevelopment opportunity. The property also includes a large parking lot where a developer could build a second building.

Officials in charge of the 560-acre Medical District on the Near West Side are moving ahead with efforts to revitalize 31 acres of vacant land into a mixed-use development. Conceptual plans show retail, hotel and public uses along with two tall gold-colored towers at Ogden Avenue and Polk Street.

Civic Health Development Group, meanwhile, is working on converting the 345,000-square-foot former Cook County Hospital into Hyatt House and Hyatt Place hotels with a total of 210 guest rooms, plus medical offices and retail space. The $90 million project from the joint venture led by Murphy Development Group is the first step in a $1 billion redevelopment of the area around the old hospital.

And Rush University Medical Center is building a $473 million, 530,000-square-foot cancer and neurological care facility next to its existing campus in the district. [Crain’s] — John O’Brien