New Medical Building Granted Variances

Oak Lawn Village board members approved the consolidation of four lots into one at 6700 W. 95^th St., now the site of Bally Total Fitness, for construction of a new medical office.

Robert Oldenburg, development director for Irgens Development Partners LLC representing Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers, described plans to relocate the hospital’s urgent care center to the new medical building. Little Company of Mary also plans to put in a state-of-the-art diagnostic center.

The hospital will demolish the existing building and construct a new 3-story building in its place. The building will essentially have the same configurations of the current Bally, with a few variations.

Oldenburg showed renderings of the new 45,000-square-foot, masonry and glass-windowed building  “with nice curb appeal from 95^th Street.” The building will follow Green Building Initiatives by utilizing much of the existing pavement and adding landscaping.

A 6-foot-high masonry wall will be installed along the east property line to reduce potential nuisances from patients and employees going to and from the medical building.

The village board approved two variance requests for a setback reduction by two feet and reducing the number of required parking spaces to 172 parking stalls. To accommodate parking needs of the anticipated 65 to 70 employees who will work in the building, the hospital has entered a 50-year lease agreement with the Oak Lawn Park District for 65 parking spaces at Centennial Park.

Oldenburg said construction would begin this summer and expects the building to be completed and occupied by summer 2012.

Appeared in the Feb. 24 edition of the Oak Lawn Patch Rundown.