Lurie Children’s Hospital expands Streeterville campus by buying its next-door neighbor

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago expanded its Streeterville medical campus by closing Wednesday on the purchase of 211 E. Chicago Ave., its next-door neighbor and the headquarters of the American Dental Association. The move gives Lurie more space while also preventing big vacancies from opening up in the 23-story tower as ADA consolidates lab space out-of-state and shrinks the amount of square footage its office uses.

“(Lurie Children’s) needed some additional space and this will help them meet their strategic goal,” said ADA Executive Director Dr. Raymond Cohlmia.

The tower was home to the ADA for nearly 60 years, but with staff now going to the office just two or three days each week, the organization no longer needs the same amount of office space, he added. The group will instead move its office headquarters into the top four floors of 401 N. Michigan Ave. on the Magnificent Mile. The ADA also plans to consolidate its research laboratories from both 211 E. Chicago Ave. and other facilities in Maryland into a new facility in the Boston metro area.

The price paid for the ADA property was not disclosed.

The organization is financially healthy, Cohlmia said, so selling the building wasn’t done to generate a windfall.

“That really wasn’t a factor in our decision,” he said. “Ultimately, we wanted to stay in Chicago and this allows us to reconfigure our space while meeting the needs of today’s work environment. And we also thought, ‘why don’t we help Lurie at the same time?’”

The nonprofit Lurie Children’s completed the 1.4-million-square-foot, 24-story hospital at 225 E. Chicago Ave. in 2012, and soon expanded into the ADA building, becoming its largest tenant. Although it has not finalized an expansion plan, hospital officials said buying the tower will allow Lurie to serve more patients.

“As we continue to experience strong demand for our services, we plan to expand clinical capacity by moving more administrative offices out of the main hospital to our new building next door,” Kary McIlwain, senior vice president at Lurie Children’s, said in a statement. “This is an exciting milestone that coincides with the June anniversary of the hospital’s move 12 years ago to the state-of-the art facility we built in Streeterville. Acquiring this adjacent building will help ensure a sustainable and impactful future for our organization and the communities we serve.”