SOUTH CHICAGO — Advocate Health Care broke ground this week on a replacement for Trinity Hospital with fewer beds that will coincide with more off-site and preventative care, as the new hospital is set to open within a lakefront megadevelopment by the end of the decade.
Advocate Health is building a 40-bed hospital at 8000 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive in South Chicago. The facility will replace the 205-bed Trinity Hospital, located about three miles away at 2320 E. 93rd St. in Calumet Heights.
The new South Side hospital is set to open in 2029 and offer inpatient care, an expanded emergency department, imaging and diagnostic services, Dr. Pamela Cruz, president of Trinity Hospital’s medical staff, said at a Tuesday groundbreaking ceremony. The site will also include public “respite” areas, walking paths and a community garden, officials said.
“Our patients, physicians and teammates deserve a space designed for how care is provided and delivered today, with the flexibility to meet the needs of the future,” Trinity Hospital President Michelle Blakely said.
The state’s health facilities review board approved a $320 million plan for the hospital last year, which included June 24 deadline for Advocate Health to submit this year’s progress report.
Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Advocate Health Care hospital at 8000 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr. in South Chicago on June 2, 2026. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
The new hospital plan, as approved by the state board, includes 36 medical and surgical beds and four intensive care beds. The existing Trinity hospital includes 158 medical and surgical beds and 24 intensive care beds, as well as 23 OB/GYN beds, according to state records.
As of last year, Trinity had a five-year occupancy of 51 percent for medical and surgical beds, 54 percent for intensive care beds and 20 percent for OB/GYN beds, according to the state-approved plan.
The plan also estimates that the area Trinity serves — which includes numerous South and Southwest side communities — has a total “excess” of 660 medical and surgical beds and 18 intensive care beds.
Derrick Rose hands out roses during the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Advocate Health Care hospital at 8000 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr. in South Chicago on June 2, 2026. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
The city’s Plan Commission approved development plans that call for a five-story, 183,000-square-foot main hospital building with 368 parking spaces, Chicago YIMBY reported in March.
The 23-acre hospital site will allow for new facilities to be constructed as needed, Advocate officials told 7th Ward residents earlier this year.
“We’re building intentionally on a space this large, because this is phase one of what we believe to be a much larger, [expanding] project over time,” Blakely said at a March ward meeting.
The hospital’s construction is part of Advocate Health’s $1 billion plan to improve health services on the South Side, which includes plans to open 10 new outpatient centers with screenings, testing and treatments for common conditions. Four outpatient locations have been completed, as well as two mobile locations, officials said.
The health care company will also expand prescription, food delivery, OB-GYN services and other programs which aim to manage chronic disease and address the “social factors that affect health,” officials said upon the plan’s launch in 2024.
The expanded outpatient services and community health programs, estimated to cost more than $700 million, aim to “give care upstream, before people become patients in the hospital,” Advocate Health President Dia Nichols said Tuesday.
Advocate officials also pledged to spend $25 million on workforce development and hire more than 1,000 new employees through the plan. The company has hired 566 people to date, CEO Eugene Woods said at the groundbreaking.
The replacement hospital is part of Quantum Shore development, whose namesake is the quantum computing research and development campus known as the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park.
The quantum campus sits at the megadevelopment’s south end near the lakefront at 87th Street, about a mile down DuSable Lake Shore Drive from the hospital.
A rendering is displayed during the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Advocate Health Care hospital at 8000 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr. in South Chicago on June 2, 2026. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Alongside projects like the quantum campus and the recently opened Thrive Exchange development, Advocate’s replacement hospital is “laying the foundation for sustained economic growth and community revitalization across the Southeast Side,” Ald. Greg Mitchell (7th) said.
Advocate Trinity was one of four South Side hospitals — alongside St. Bernard, South Shore and the former Mercy hospitals — which in 2020 sought to consolidate into one or two main hospitals and several community health centers. Those plans fell through due to a lack of state funding, hospital officials said.
The Leo High School Choir performs during the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Advocate Health Care hospital at 8000 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr. in South Chicago on June 2, 2026. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
An aerial rendering the future South Side Advocate Health hospital site, 8000 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive in South Chicago. Credit: Provided/Advocate Health Care