UChicago Medicine is planning to spend nearly $328 million to build a four-story clinical laboratory facility in Washington Park, a project paired with a new Malcolm X College training center aimed at funneling South Side residents into health care careers. The lab would rise on East Garfield Boulevard, about one mile from the hospital system's flagship campus in Hyde Park, and is expected to support roughly 550 jobs, including about 200 newly created positions.
The plan, which the Chicago Tribune covered, calls for a 144,368-square-foot building that would consolidate clinical laboratories currently scattered across multiple locations, according to the Tribune's reporting. UChicago Medicine has said the new facility would bring its pathology laboratories together, expand testing capacity, and support about 550 jobs in Washington Park. The hospital system's main laboratories currently sit in a basement, the Tribune reports, where aging infrastructure causes frequent disruptions — heavy rain or severe weather has caused water inflows that damage lab equipment, threaten patient specimens, and lead to substantive delays in testing and reporting.
The new building would be constructed on land owned by the University of Chicago and is designed to accommodate expected growth in lab testing, including capacity to support the AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion, which University of Chicago Civic Engagement says is expected to open in 2027. Per the Tribune's reporting, UChicago Medicine expects lab specimens to still be transported within an already-established 30-minute window once operations move to the new site.
A Training Pipeline Built Alongside the Lab
Directly west of the proposed lab, on Chicago Transit Authority-owned land near the Garfield Green Line station, City Colleges of Chicago plans to build a learning center for Malcolm X College, according to the same Civic Engagement announcement. The Tribune reports the learning center carries a roughly $40 million price tag and would be built adjacent to the new UChicago Medicine lab building. University of Chicago News reports the center would include classrooms, dry labs, office space and retail space, and would support approximately 50 employees of its own.
The learning center is expected to serve up to 800 students and would establish the first clinical laboratory technician program in Chicago, per University of Chicago News. That program is designed to help fill the area's need for clinical laboratory technicians, as Chicago hospitals have struggled to find qualified workers, according to the Tribune's account. The university's news office notes that Chicago has roughly 500 annual job openings for medical laboratory positions, with about 1,000 statewide and 25,000 nationally.
Together, the two connected projects are expected to support approximately 600 jobs, including the 200 newly created UChicago Medicine positions, University of Chicago News reports. UChicago Medicine has partnered with Malcolm X College since 2016 as a founding member of the Chicagoland Healthcare Workforce Collaborative, according to Civic Engagement, and the hospital system already hosts an average of 65 Malcolm X College students annually through internships, practicums and apprenticeships, engages more than 100 students through career events, and hires an average of 120 graduates each year, per UChicago Medicine.
Wages Well Above the Neighborhood Median
UChicago Medicine says clinical laboratory technology graduates with associate degrees can qualify for jobs paying between $42,000 and $80,000 a year, with salaries climbing to $85,000 or more for those with bachelor's degrees. Those earnings exceed more than double the median income of Washington Park residents, according to the Tribune's reporting — a gap the project's backers are framing as central to its promise for a neighborhood where, as of 2021, the unemployment rate stood at 21 percent and the poverty rate at 47 percent, per University of Chicago News. Civic Engagement also notes that approximately 40 percent of Washington Park's land was vacant as of 2021.
Nationally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put the median annual wage for clinical laboratory technologists and technicians at $62,930 in May 2025, with employment projected to grow 3 percent from 2025 to 2035 — about as fast as the average for all occupations, according to the agency's Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Mayor's Office Weighs In, Regulators Still to Act
Mayor Brandon Johnson said the healthcare pipeline expansion builds on a strong relationship placing City Colleges students into upwardly mobile careers, according to the Tribune's reporting. UChicago Medicine announced the broader project in 2024 and had expected to break ground on the laboratory in 2025, the Tribune reports — though the project still must clear the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board before moving forward. A state regulatory filing with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board identifies the project as a substantive one subject to review under state administrative rules, and states that financial commitment will occur only after a permit is issued.
A 2024 report from Block Club Chicago had estimated the lab project would cost at least $200 million, well below the nearly $328 million figure the Tribune now reports; the available record does not explain the difference between the two estimates. That same 2024 Block Club report noted that City Colleges also planned to begin offering full pathways to nursing careers at Kennedy-King College, including nursing, licensed practical nursing and basic nursing assistant programs, with the South Side program expecting 50 basic nursing assistant students to graduate by fall 2024.
The University of Chicago and City Colleges of Chicago plan to hold a community meeting to discuss the project Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Green Line Performing Arts Center, 329 E. Garfield Blvd., with an option to join via Zoom, according to the Tribune's reporting.
