Cook County Hospital Hyatt

The Story

The Historic Cook County Hospital Hyatt House/Hyatt Place Medical District

Heron Agency is the agency of record for two highly anticipated projects at the historic Cook County Hospital, transforming the property into Hyatt Place and Hyatt House Chicago Medical/University District, the first combined Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels located in Chicago, and Dr. Murphy’s Food Hall, both set to open this summer. This 342,000 square foot adaptive reuse project will feature over 4,000 sq. feet of meeting space, open concept public spaces, a 24-hour fitness center, the 10,000 sq. ft. Dr. Murphy’s Food Hall, medical offices, and a museum paying tribute to the hospital’s legacy.

Because of Chicago’s stay at home order amid COVID-19, we were unable to host a traditional press conference announcing the project, so instead we adapted to the new environment and hosted a virtual press conference via Zoom. In attendance onsite was John Murphy, CEO of Murphy Development spearheading the project, along with Alderman Burnett of the 27th Ward and Choose Chicago’s CEO David Whitaker, all practicing social distancing guidelines while speaking in regards to the project. An additional benefit to hosting the press conference virtually, we were able to seamlessly host Akhtar Nawab, celebrity chef and CEO of Hospitality HQ, which is leading the Dr. Murphy’s Food Hall project, yia Zoom, in order to speak and take part in the press conference without having to be onsite. The virtual press conference was facilitated flawlessly between the live portions via Zoom and onsite at the Cook County Hospital, as well as the pre-recorded walkthrough of the space.

To make the press conference a success, we invited A-list local, regional, and national reporters and producers to attend the conference from the safety of their homes. Attendees included reporters from Forbes, USA Today, the Chicago Sun-Times, Travel Weekly, WTTW Chicago, Midwest Real Estate News, and more. We also invited local TV crews to the press conference to capture b-roll of the press conference. In attendance was WLS-TV, WFLD-TV, and WMAQ-TV, who ran coverage from the conference that totaled in over 1,538,168 media impressions. Post event, we garnered online and print features from those that attended that included the Chicago Sun-Times, BizBash, Lodging Magazine, Politico Magazine, and more.