Children’s Memorial Hospital, pictured here in Lincoln Park, is relocating to Streeterville. (Chicago Tribune/E. Jason Wambsgans)

By Bruce Japsen | Executives at Children’s Memorial Hospital say their new medical center project has had a $373 million impact on the economy so far, with another two years of construction remaining.

The hospital, which is relocating from Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood to 225 E. Chicago Ave., just east of Michigan Avenue, will open in the summer of 2012.

“With the construction project just over 50 percent complete, this
translates to $373 million in economic impact to Illinois,” Children’s
Memorial said in a statement to the Tribune.
 
The new hospital is generating more than 3,000 construction related
jobs, Children’s said.
 
When it opens, the 23-story hospital will be licensed for 288 beds with
capacity to grow to 313. Unlike the existing facility in Lincoln Park,
the new hospital will have all private rooms, which has been a trend in hospital construction for years.

The new hospital will be named the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s
Hospital of Chicago, in recognition of Ann Lurie’s $100 million gift
toward the facility and its research and educational programs. The total
project is estimated to cost $1 billion once it opens.