Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is planning to open a new center in a former retail location in Chicago intended to bring more than 500 jobs.
The 130,000-square-foot center is expected to house offices for the insurer and offer health and wellness activities, the insurer said on Tuesday. The center will be located on Chicago’s South Side and will open in 2020.
“This new center will eventually bring 550 jobs to Chicago’s 34th Ward—most of those will be new positions,” said Maurice Smith, president of Health Care Service Corporation, the insurer’s parent company, in a statement. “Our aim is to create a multifunctional space for both employees and the local community once we open our doors in 2020.”
This will be the second health and wellness location in the South Side that Blue Cross will open. Blue Cross already opened the Blue Door Neighborhood Center in the Pullman neighborhood back in April, but that location does not have employee offices.
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The space formerly housed a Target that left the South Side neighborhood in February, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The Chicago-based Blues plan has been a major player in creating accountable care organizations in the state. It has more than doubled its ACO partnerships with doctors and hospitals in recent years, part of a greater trend across the provider industry.