Kishwaukee Community Hospital is planning to build an $85 million facility that will be more patient-friendly in terms of parking and navigating the hospital.

After a 12-month planning process, plans for the new facility were unveiled earlier this week. It will be built adjacent to the current location at 626 Bethany Road.

Kevin Poorten, CEO and president of Kishwaukee Health Services, said the money will come from bonds, cash reserves and community support.

“We looked at our number of options, and a new facility on the current campus seemed most ideal to the community,” Poorten said.

The new facility will contain between 110 and 125 private rooms and will have a cardiology and surgery room expansion.

Construction for the project is expected to begin in 2004 and should be completed by the end of 2007.

After about 30 years at its current location, the hospital board agreed an expansion of some sort was needed, because of the growth of the community and assessment of the current facility.

“We’re very excited,” Poorten said. “It was a very important decision.”

DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow said the new facility will be a benefit from an economical standpoint.

“It’ll create a certain new number of construction jobs,” he said.

Also, he added, with an enhanced facility, the quality of life of DeKalb County residents will improve.

Roger Hopkins, executive director of DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation, said the idea of a new facility was brought up in early September to get community reaction.

“Health care employees are the most fastest-growing,” Hopkins said. “It’ll still be in a small market, but a new facility will hopefully attract more specialty doctors.”

He also said having more jobs available in DeKalb will give the local economy a much-needed boost. Recent major construction projects in DeKalb have included the Convocation Center, Barsema Hall and the continuing Altgeld Hall renovations.

“The [new facility] will be equivalent of those three,” Hopkins said. “We had little new industrial [projects] and it was a real shot in the arm for local construction companies.”