Home Care In Melrose Park, IL

Crab Du Jour, a Cajun-inspired seafood restaurant, with 85 locations along the East Coast, will officially celebrate the grand opening of its first Chicagoland location at 851 W. North Ave. in Melrose Park, Illinois. As part of the grand opening festivities, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, which will include a special donation to and performance by Lutheran High School marching band, will be held Tuesday, July 12, at 11:30 a.m. with a grand opening meal and tasting to follow.

“We are excited to be expanding into the Midwest region with our first Chicagoland location in Melrose Park,” said Beau Stickley, VP of Business Development, Crab Du Jour. “This location will be the first of many as Chicago has really become a food destination. We look forward to becoming a part of the growing community in Melrose Park and bringing our Cajun-inspired seafood and delicious home-style specialties to our new neighbors.”

Crab Du Jour, which translates roughly to “crab of the day,” offers a dining experience featuring freshly prepared and made-to-order Cajun-inspired seafood boils and a variety of fresh seafood selections, including clams, mussels, shrimp, crawfish, crab legs, lobster and more.

Its signature dish is the Cajun seafood boil, which features a variety of items sold by the half-pound ($7.50-$14.50) or pound ($13.99-$28.99), then steamed via bags and presented tableside with seasonings of choice in three heat intensities with corn and potatoes.

How it Works

Customers select their seafood, choose from an array of house-blended sauces like Cajun, garlic butter, Old Bay, lemon pepper, or ‘Du Jour’, which incorporates all of the options, customize their desired spice level, and add side items like corn, potatoes, and sausage. Each boil is served in a bag, which is shaken and presented tableside in front of guests.

In addition to the boils, the menu also includes Fire Basted “7 Fishes of The Sea”, coconut shrimp, fried calamari, crab bisque, fried scallops and crab cakes, and Southern Cajun specialties and non-seafood dishes, including a bourbon steak, chicken wings, hush puppies, chicken Po’Boys, cheeseburger, fried pickles, and more.

The restaurant offers a full-service bar serving up its signature cocktails: Tipsy Mermaid – coconut rum, lime juice, pineapple juice, and blue curacao; the Swedish Fish – rum, grenadine, watermelon juice, and lemonade. Other current favorites include the Giggly Guppy and Skinny Seal.

Crab Du Jour is open Sunday through Thursday, from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. to midnight.

MELROSE PARK, ILL. — CEVA Logistics and Expeditors International have signed leases at Bridge Point Melrose Park, an industrial property currently under development in the Chicago suburb of Melrose Park. Bridge Industrial owns the property. CEVA, a supply chain management firm, signed a long-term lease agreement for a 707,953-square-foot warehouse. Expeditors, a logistics and freight forwarding firm, will occupy a 669,914-square-foot facility.

The project team includes architecture firm Cornerstone, general contractor ARCO Murray and civil engineer SPACECO Inc. CIBC provided project financing last year. Bridge plans to construct one final building that will span 225,009 square feet. Dan McGillicuddy, Charlie Kenning and Brian Carroll of JLL represented Bridge in the lease transactions. Jason Lev and Jimmy Kowalczyk of CBRE, along with Jeffrey Kernochan and Andrew Mager of Fischer, represented the tenants.

CHICAGO — The Park Hyatt Chicago hotel at 800 N. Michigan Ave. is scheduled to reopen this summer following a $60 million renovation that began early this year. Reservations are now available to book for stays beginning July 1. The renovation project included 23 new suite additions, reimagined guestrooms, enhancements to the lobby and library, new art selections, and updates to the food and beverage programs as well as the spa. Design firm Anderson/Miller Ltd. worked on the modernization of the guestrooms and suites. Sheedy DeLaRosa Interiors designed the lobby and library on the ground floor to complement the new art selections. NoMI Kitchen will reopen with Executive Chef Terence Zubieta at the helm.

CHICAGO — Interra Realty has brokered the sale of Astoria Tower in Chicago’s South Loop for $82.5 million. The luxury apartment tower rises 30 stories with 248 units. Built in 2009, Astoria Tower features one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. Amenities include a fitness center, indoor pool, sauna, spa treatment room, billiards room, movie room, business center and two rooftop decks. The seller, Miami-based Crescent Heights, converted the property from condominiums into apartment units in phases completed in 2010 and 2019. Brad Feldman of Interra represented the buyer, Chicago-based 3L Real Estate, which plans to add additional amenities and offerings to increase rents.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the $10.4 million sale of 40 Cannon, a multifamily building located about 85 miles north of Manhattan in Poughkeepsie. According to LoopNet Inc., the property, which includes retail space, was originally built as a hotel in 1957. Joseph French Jr., Kodi Traver and Matthew Gault of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, an undisclosed private investor, in the deal. Steven Rock of Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. arranged acquisition financing on behalf of the buyer. The property was fully leased at the time of sale.

Fresenius Kabi will invest $250m for the pharmaceutical manufacturing facility expansion at the Melrose Park village. Credit: Business Wire.

The expanded facility will produce generic sterile injectable pharmaceuticals. Credit: Doc James.

Commercial operations at the expanded facility are due to begin by 2026. Credit: Brian Hoskins / Freeimages.com.

Fresenius Kabi will invest $250m for the pharmaceutical manufacturing facility expansion at the Melrose Park village. Credit: Business Wire.

In August 2016, German pharmaceutical company Fresenius Kabi announced plans for an expansion of the pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities of its site in Melrose Park, Illinois.

The expanded facility will be used to produce generic sterile injectable pharmaceuticals for hospitals and clinics across the US.

Construction commenced in September 2017 and the facility is expected to be fully operational by 2026. The expansion will create jobs for construction and highly skilled workers in Melrose Park.

Location of Fresenius Kabi’s Melrose Park expansion project

The expansion will involve the construction of buildings at Fresenius Kabi’s existing 124,267ft² plant in Melrose Park, which was built in 2008 at 2020 N Ruby St.

The site is located in a general industrial area in the outskirts of Chicago, five miles from the O’Hare International Airport. It currently employs around 700 people.

The plant produces a wide range of generic injectable medicines for critically and chronically ill patients.

Details of Fresenius Kabi’s manufacturing facility expansion

Fresenius Kabi will add four buildings to the site, with a total floor space of 130,000ft². The facility will include space for highly automated manufacturing, offices, warehousing of materials and utilities.

The expansion is expected to support the production of injectable drugs for anaesthesia, pain management, cancer treatment and eliminating infections. The project will be completed in line with the latest regulatory and quality requirements.

The facility will be equipped with a state-of-the-art urban manufacturing campus, including fully-automated aseptic filling lines and sophisticated isolator technology, as well as expanded freeze capabilities and formulation areas. It will also include a dedicated warehouse for raw materials and components, alongside an administration building with a conference centre, laboratories, office spaces and a cafeteria.

Financing for the Melrose Park expansion

The multi-stage, multi-year project is expected to be completed in ten years, with an estimated investment of $250m.

Fresenius Kabi is expected to receive $15m in tax-increment financing subsidies from Melrose Park village if it spends at least $80m on the expansion. The company is also expected to obtain subsidies for water usage, while Cook County will offer a 12-year property tax reduction.

Fresenius Kabi will also receive state tax credits for the expansion from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Contractors involved

The new facility at the Melrose Park site was designed by US-based consultant CRB.

American construction company Gilbane Building Company was awarded the general construction contract for the new facility.

Marketing commentary on Fresenius Kabi

Based in Germany, Fresenius Kabi is a global healthcare company engaged in the development of medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion and clinical nutrition.

The company’s US headquarters is located at Lake Zurich, Illinois, while its pharmaceutical manufacturing centres are located at Bensenville, Skokie, Lake Zurich and Melrose Park, Illinois. It also has manufacturing sites in New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Fresenius Kabi’s US manufacturing sites focus primarily on developing pharmaceutical products, but also manufacture medical devices and clinical nutrition products. The company employs a total of around 2,500 people across the country.

A company based in New Jersey is in the process of getting state approval to permanently reopen Westlake Hospital, 1225 W. Lake St. in Melrose Park, as Woodlake Specialty Hospital.

The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board conducted a public hearing related to New Jersey-based Woodlake Pacific Holdings’s application on June 15.

The same day, Crain’s Chicago Business broke the news that it had obtained court transcripts showing that Westlake’s previous owner, California-based Pipeline Health, “never intended to keep the hospital open” despite promises to the contrary that Pipeline’s representatives made in the weeks and months leading up to purchasing the Melrose Park hospital, along with two others in the Chicago area in 2018.

“‘Pursuant to the party’s acquisition agreement, the Westlake Hospital was required to be shut down by June 5th of that same year,’ bankruptcy trustee representative Allen Guon said during a hearing last November,” according to a court transcript Crain’s obtained.

“Pipeline’s 2018 change of ownership application with the state said the transaction ‘will result in no changes to the scope of services offered at Westlake,’” Crain’s reported.

Pipeline paid $70 million in 2018 to purchase Westlake, West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago from Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare. The company still owns the latter two hospitals. It closed Westlake in 2019, the year the Melrose Park hospital filed for bankruptcy.

Crain’s reported that it isn’t “clear why the acquisition agreement required Westlake to be closed,” but “Tenet’s deal with Pipeline came shortly after Tenet sold MacNeal Hospital to Loyola Medicine for $270 million in 2018.”

A Loyola Medicine representative told Crain’s that the health system “made no such request regarding the closure of Westlake Hospital.”

The proposed Woodlake Specialty Hospital would include 230 beds, the same number that Westlake Hospital had. In the application it submitted to the Review Board, Woodlake Pacific Holdings representatives said that they plan to spend an estimated $43.4 million to acquire and renovate the aging Melrose Park property.

They said if their application is approved by the state, they anticipate completing the hospital by Dec. 31, 2022 and estimated that. “At least 500 to 600 permanent jobs will be created.”

As with Pipeline, Woodlake officials have vowed not to discontinue the hospital’s charity care policies, which are designed to provide affordable healthcare for low-income and indigent individuals.

According to Woodlake’s application, Mark Tress, the managing member of Woodlake Specialty Hospital and Woodlake Pacific Holdings, certified “under penalty of perjury” that “Woodlake Specialty Hospital LLC will not adopt more restrictive charity care policies that were in effect at Westlake Hospital prior to its closure in 2019 and that those charity care policies will remain in effect for no less than two years following the reopening of the former Westlake Hospital.”

Dr. Glenn Kushner, the last president of the medical staff at Westlake Hospital prior to its closure, has agreed to serve as the inaugural president of the medical staff at Woodlake Hospital, Woodlake officials stated.

Woodlake said on its application that the new hospital “is arguably the first project in at least 30 years where a new provider is prepared to invest over $40 million into an underserved community with no real commitment that the State will cover any unprojected, operating losses.”

The company added that the pending opening of Woodlake was made possible by Senate Bill 0168, which was filed by Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (7th) in March. The legislation outlines the requirements for reopening a discontinued general acute care hospital.

Under the new law, any entity seeking to reopen a previously discontinued general acute care hospital has to reestablish the same number of total licensed beds as were previously licensed by the state at the discontinued hospital, among other provisions.

Among those 230 beds, Woodlake will have 80 acute mental illness beds, 60 long-term care beds, 33 long-term acute care beds, six intensive care unit beds to support the long-term acute care unit, and 40 comprehensive physical rehabilitation beds. The hospital will also maintain a stand-by emergency department.

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After buying a big property in Melrose Park, Chicago developer Mitch Goltz is thinking small.

A Goltz venture has taken over part of the former Maywood Park horse track, where the developer plans a retail project of 10 small buildings geared mainly to restaurants. Totaling 15.5 acres along a busy stretch of North Avenue, it’s the kind of site where a developer might have proposed a big shopping center 15 years ago.

But projects like that are a lot harder to pull off in the e-commerce era. Big-box chains, traditional anchor tenants for shopping centers, and other retailers that face online competition aren’t expanding—many are closing stores by the dozens. Restaurants and medical tenants are opening more locations, though. Building the biggest development possible no longer makes sense.

“This could be a much larger project than we’re proposing, but the market just isn’t there,” said Goltz, principal of Chicago-based GW Properties.

Goltz’s venture paid about $9 million for the parcel, part of a larger redevelopment of Maywood Park. The racetrack at 8600 W. North Ave. closed in 2015 after nearly 70 years in business. The track’s operator, which leased the track, wound up in bankruptcy, but the property’s longtime owners, the Galt family, retained ownership of the 56-acre site, which the village of Melrose Park annexed this year.

In February, the Galts sold a 40-acre parcel south of GW’s site to a joint venture that’s developing three industrial buildings there totaling 620,000 square feet.

Goltz said he already has commitments for about eight of his 10 development sites along North Avenue, mainly from restaurant chains. Some will lease the parcels from his venture, while others will buy their sites, he said. He expects the buildings to comprise about 45,000 square feet combined.

Being a retail developer isn’t easy these days. With many national chains closing stores or scaling back growth plans, the local retail vacancy rate is hovering near recession-era levels. Mid-America Real Estate, an Oak Brook-based brokerage, projected earlier this year that retail construction in the Chicago area would fall to a record low of about 598,000 square feet this year.

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Yet a closer look at the market reveals pockets of strength. Many developers are courting restaurant chains, popular targets because they are still growing. Restaurants tend to prefer free-standing buildings on outlots with plenty of space for parking and drive-thrus.

“These are businesses that really are not affected by online and e-commerce,” Goltz said.

Goltz is responding to strong restaurant demand by focusing on smaller outlot projects along busy streets. They’re not as eye-catching as a big shopping center, but they’re more likely to succeed.

“It was really one of the main reasons GW was chosen as the buyer,” said Larry Goldwasser, managing director in the Chicago office of Cushman & Wakefield, which brokered the sale of the Maywood Park parcels. “We thought they had the most realistic plan for the market, so there was more chance of (the transaction) closing.”

GW has taken a similar approach in the South Loop, where it’s developing small retail buildings for Chick-fil-A, 7-Eleven and Aspen Dental. In Oak Brook and Schaumburg, the firm plans to raze two 110,000-square-foot Macy’s furniture stores and subdivide the properties into outlots for restaurants and other tenants. The two projects will probably total less than half the square footage of the Macy’s stores, Goltz said.

GW expects to complete its Maywood Park project next fall. Meanwhile, the industrial phase, called Chariot Logistics Center, is well underway. The development joint venture between Ridgeline Property Group of Atlanta and New York-based J.P. Morgan Asset Management is close to completing construction of two of the warehouses and is about to start the third, Goldwasser said. The project has attracted a lot of interest from prospective tenants, though none have signed any leases, he said.