New medical office building coming to Huntley next year

Commercial development in Huntley will get a boost with several health care facilities coming online next year, according to village officials.

Centegra Health System plans to build an 80,000-square-foot, four-story medical office building to house physicians next to its Centegra Hospital-Huntley, being built off Haligus Road, between Algonquin and Reed roads on Centegra's existing health campus.

The office building will be connected to Centegra's ambulatory care mall and its new $233 million, 360,000-square-foot Huntley hospital, which is on target for a summer opening.

"The hospital is about 86 percent complete," Centegra CEO Mike Eesley said Friday. "All these buildings will be connected so people will be able to transition through (them)."

The medical office building becomes operational in March 2017. Its tenants will comprise Centegra physicians and specialists, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, which will have a 30,000-square-foot regional campus within, and an outpatient renal dialysis center.

Eesley said the university is starting a three-year internal medicine residency program at Centegra's McHenry hospital in July. Eight medical residents yearly will be trained there.

Having a university presence within Centegra's Huntley campus "will be an opportunity to enhance our ability to bring physicians to our market," Eesley said.

The future Huntley hospital also will be able to refer patients to the outpatient dialysis center, he added.

Centegra, McHenry County's largest employer, has hospitals in McHenry and Woodstock. It has been serving the Huntley area since 2004 through its Centegra Health Bridge Fitness Center, immediate care and physicians offices, medical imaging and laboratory services, and Centegra Healthy Living, all housed on the same campus.

Officials estimate more than 800 construction jobs were created to build the hospital, creating an economic impact of $152 million on area communities.

"It's a pretty phenomenal campus," Eesley said. "We've started some hiring (for some of the higher specialties). After the first of the year, we will begin recruiting 550 associates."

The Huntley hospital eventually will employ more than 1,000 people, offer 100 medical surgical beds, a full-service emergency department, a women's center with 20 private obstetric rooms, special care nursery, a new cardiac catheterization laboratory and cardiology services, and a helipad for transporting critical patients.

Once the hospital and office building come online, officials will begin planning for any future expansion on the 110-acre campus, Eesley said.