By Dawn Rhodes, Chicago Tribune reporter
One of the state’s major health-care systems is relocating its headquarters to Downers Grove this year, officials announced.
Advocate Health Care, a 10-hospital network, is moving its offices from Oak Brook to Downers Grove, about five miles west. The new offices will be situated just a few minutes up the road from Good Samaritan Hospital, long considered a flagship employer in the village.
“We’re thrilled to have them,” said Mayor Martin T. Tully. “It raises our community profile, locally, regionally and nationally. It’s a natural fit, given that we have a long- standing, great relationship with Good Samaritan.”
“It’s certainly a great economic boon for the village,” said Michael Cassa, president of the Economic Development Corporation. “Combining Advocate’s headquarters with Good Samaritan, it’s not just an economic generator for the town but for the entire region.”
Advocate officials said that it plans to move its support centers in Oak Brook and Park Ridge to the Downers Grove location. The Oak Brook campus will be converted to a centralized business office.
Advocate will occupy 3 1/2 floors of the seven-story Highland Landmark building at 3075 Highland Road, part of a five-tower complex on 42 acres just off the Reagan Memorial Tollway. Each floor is about 35,000 square feet, according to the developer’s website.
Cassa said that the business park is also home to DeVry, JPMorgan Chase, New York Life and Microsoft.

“We are very fortunate and pleased that we will soon call Downers Grove home to our corporate support center,” Jim Skogsbergh, Advocate’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “The new space allows us to bring the unique disciplines of more than 600 employees from our Support Center locations together in an integrated team environment.”
Tully, who frequently talks of the need to attract new businesses, said that landing Advocate gives the village a competitive edge.
“We obviously have a lot of things that are attractive to businesses, but we’re not the only one,” Tully said. “When people associate Downers Grove with major corporations, that helps us attract more of the same.”
Officials also said the influx of hundreds of employees for work can generate economic activity in the area.
“Many of them will stay in hotels, they’ll eat in the restaurants, they’ll live here, they’ll shop here,” Cassa said.
Advocate officials said they expect to complete the move by late spring.
