Nearly a dozen years after the last patient was taken from Aurora’s Copley Memorial Hospital to a new facility in a more affluent neighborhood three miles east, Old Copley remains vacant and shuttered, a symbol of decay on the city’s near southeast side.
“What can you do with an old hospital? Nothing really,” Aurora Ald. Stephanie Kifowit said. “It’s driven down property values. It’s created a big black hole in the middle of the neighborhood.”
It could also be a sobering lesson for city leaders in Joliet, Kifowit said, where Silver Cross Hospital recently proposed building a new facility three miles east — in the booming community of New Lenox.
“This is definitely a ‘do not want in your neighborhood’ scenario,” Kifowit said, referring to the graffiti and vandalism at Old Copley.
Even Silver Cross officials agree.
“It’s our intention to leave this neighborhood better,” said Ruth Colby, Silver Cross’ vice president for business development. “We take it very seriously.”
There are many similarities, and some distinct differences, between Copley’s 1995 move to the $72.4 million Rush-Copley Medical Center campus on 95 acres and the proposed Silver Cross move to a new $400 million hospital on 70 acres.
Copley moved from an older neighborhood already plagued by vacancies to a rapidly growing suburban enclave, just as Silver Cross proposes.
But Copley stayed in the city where it had been for 107 years, while Silver Cross plans to depart Joliet, where it was established 112 years ago.
Because Copley stayed in town, it had the support of Aurora officials. In Joliet, city leaders oppose the move, saying Silver Cross should choose another Joliet site.
Officials at both hospitals said they needed to leave old buildings on landlocked campuses to accommodate future growth and increase efficiencies, and both denied accusations of trying to cherry-pick more affluent patients.
Copley left behind about 81/2 acres. Silver Cross, about twice the size of old Copley in terms of square feet and beds, would leave behind 50 , about 15 of which cannot be developed because they are in a flood plain.
Kifowit believes Aurora leaders erred two years after Copley moved when they rejected paying $3 million in subsidies over 25 years to develop the site.
Copley officials had already agreed to pay a Chicago firm $80,000 in annual subsidies for 25 years to back the redevelopment.
But the Aurora City Council in 1997 — with then Mayor David Stover breaking a tie vote — rejected the $11.7 million plan to convert the hospital into a low-income senior citizens housing complex.
Copley later bequeathed the land to a Naperville community development corporation, which sold it in March for $1.2 million to private investors eyeing redevelopment, including stores, offices and housing.
Kifowit is skeptical. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” she said.
“I see its potential,” countered Mayor Tom Weisner. “Obviously, other people do too, or they wouldn’t have bought it.”
He views the site as an opportunity, rather than a “black hole,” but he also expressed concern that it remains vacant.
“You have an area that was formerly very vibrant, in regards to a lot of activity and employment, and suddenly you have an area that is at a standstill,” he said.
Kifowit and Weisner both suggested Silver Cross hire consultants and work closely with the city on redevelopment.
Silver Cross spent more than $100,000 on the initial phase of a redevelopment study even before announcing the proposed move, and hospital officials pledge to continue work with the city and developers.
Hospital officials said they plan to maintain an urgent-care facility at the existing Silver Cross site after their move.
The study suggested six redevelopment options. One was a mixed-use retail and residential development, but the consultants noted “current demographics do not support this kind of development.”
Roadblocks and drawbacks also were noted for the other options: a senior residential and recreation community; a college campus and learning center; a grocery store-anchored retail center; a health-care and medical campus; and a city park with community center.
“I am concerned with the future plans for the Silver Cross campus, no doubt about it,” said state Sen. A.J. Wilhelmi (D-Joliet), co-chair of the Collins Street Task Force, which is working on redevelopment of 200 acres on the city’s east side.
Citing “a very strong commitment to make things happen on the east side of Joliet,” he added, “I would be very surprised if it’s 10 years from now and nothing is happening with the Silver Cross campus.”
Joliet Councilman Joe Shetina accused the hospital of “deserting the City of Joliet,” calling it “a big slap in the face.”
Shetina said that if the hospital moves, the city will lose its sixth-largest employer, with 1,400 jobs. Calling the existing hospital “the highest and best use” in that location, he said redevelopment of the site “could be very difficult.”
Silver Cross CEO Paul Pawlak said the hospital would continue to serve the same patients, as well as new ones, in New Lenox.
Pawlak said developers have shown interest in the hospital’s current site. Noting it’s on U.S. Highway 6 about 31/2 miles from a planned Interstate Highway 355 interchange, he said the site could “be a great gateway to the City of Joliet.”
“You just don’t walk away from something like this,” he said, noting the hospital’s long history in the city. “We have a commitment to make sure this is a positive move, for the neighbors and Silver Cross.”
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hdardick@tribune.com
