University of Chicago Medicine received approval from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to begin designing and planning the state's first freestanding cancer center, which will cost $633 million.
If the project receives regulatory approval, construction will begin in 2023 and the center will open in 2026, according to a March 15 UChicago news release.
The project will span 500,000 square feet on the city's South Side. It will add 128 beds, which will be dedicated to patients with cancer, to the hospital's campus, freeing other beds for patients with complex and acute care needs.
The cancer center will also address healthcare inequities for residents of the city's South Side, who have a higher cancer burden and less access to care, UChicago said.