Cook County Hospital rehab awarded $3 million in state tax credits

The Cook County Hospital Administration Building rehabilitation plan has been awarded $3 million in historic state tax credits.

The 345,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts structure at 1835 W. Harrison St. was among four statewide projects to receive a total of $9.75 million in tax credits in the first round of funding from the Illinois Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program (SHTC), which was signed into law in June 2018.

“This highly anticipated announcement was a long time coming,” said Bonnie McDonald, President and CEO of Landmarks Illinois, which first placed the hospital on their Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois list in 2001. “Landmarks Illinois is encouraged to see this important incentive is successfully spurring preservation in our state.”

Cook County Hospital’s main building, designed by architect Paul Gerhardt in 1914, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After nearly two decades of vacancy, the effort to redevelop the 104-year old building broke ground last summer.

The $1 billion project, led by the Civic Health Development Group (CHDG) and Chicago-based developer John T. Murphy, will restore the hospital’s facade and demolish old features to make way for two new hotels—a Hyatt House and Hyatt Place. Office space, retail shops, additional apartments, and a technology center are expected to be developed on the larger site in future phases. The initial phase is expected to be completed by 2020.

The hospital was one of 24 projects deemed eligible for historic state tax credits. The other projects that received funding included a hotel in Belleville, Paris’s high school building, and a VA building in Hines, Illinois.