Former Emerald Park Land Poised for a Fresh Start

Evergreen Park has one plot of real estate checked off of its developable land list. Years after the village shut down and demolished the former Emerald Park Health Care Center because of mismanagement, a new medical office has taken its place.

, which formerly occupied a building at 3650 W. 95th St., moved into its newly-built facility last month at 9125 S. Pulaski Ave.

"We love the new facility," said Wendy Prendergast, the office manager. "We gained a new conference room. It's nice not to be one on top of the other."

According to Evergreen Park's building department, the new facility cost nearly $1.3 million to construct and was built by Orland Park-based Jeanes Construction.

After Emerald Park Health Care was vacated in 2005, officials said the village purchased the property for $200,000 and demolished the building. The village made close to $475,000 in profits from selling the property to SW Property Group.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health officials (IDPH), the long-term health care facility was shut down in 2005 due to many years of mismanagement. The center had been subject to several health care and safety violations, related to the staff's failure to supervise a resident who exchanged sex for cigarettes with other residents, among other things, according to a 2005 news release from the IDPH. Officials said the resident had a sexually transmitted disease and was pregnant, which staff did not realize until almost the end of her pregnancy.

Prendergast said that Southwest Nephrology will have an open house for the community to see the facility soon.