URW adding 200k SF of healthcare space to Skokie mall redevelopment

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is injecting as much as 200,000 square feet of healthcare space to its redevelopment plan for the north suburban Westfield Old Orchard mall.

The announcement adds another use to the French developer’s revisioning of the North Shore shopping center. URW is one of several developers seeking to revitalize suburban Chicago’s decades-old malls by adding residences with its $100 million plan to demolish and replace the Skokie mall’s empty 206,000-square-foot Bloomingdale’s with about 350 apartments and a town square for events including outdoor concerts and farmers markets. 

JLL’s Greg Gerber, who is handling leasing for the healthcare space along with Chris Cummins, said adding medical space to Old Orchard represents a new healthcare delivery trend of bringing care to where the patients are and putting it in the same location as desirable amenities and services.

The addition of medical space will help make the 66-year-old Westfield Old Orchard a 24/7 destination, with shopping, dining, banking and wellness needs, URW’s Stephen Fluhr explained in a statement.

The medical space will be available for leasing in 2024, according to JLL. The mall currently has 1.7 million square feet of retail space. Its Bloomingdale’s anchor closed in August and in November opened a smaller space known as a Bloomie’s in another storefront. URW is also gutting Lord & Taylor, another previous anchor, and redeveloping it into three or four smaller outlet stores.