Mass Vaccination Site Opening In Vacant Des Plaines Kmart

DES PLAINES, IL — Up to 1,890 people a day will begin receiving COVID-19 vaccines Thursday at a vacant big box retail store in Des Plaines, as the state's last Kmart to close is set to become the largest vaccination site in the northwest suburbs. It will also be the first in the state to use the new single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The state-supported mass vaccination and testing site will be operated by a partnership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Cook County, according to Des Plaines City Manager Mike Bartholomew.

"They've already done the interior renovations to make that happen," Bartholomew told aldermen Monday. "So we will have access to mass vaccination right in our backyard, so hopefully that will be great for the community and the surrounding area."

The facility includes about 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space and is being subleased by Cook County from SG Blocks, a firm that had set up a COVID-19 testing site aimed at travelers coming through O'Hare International Airport, according to a release.

“We were happy to support the leadership team at Cook County in transitioning the space to a COVID-19 vaccination site," said SG Blocks CEO Paul Galvin. "Our Chicago Airport Testing was not fully utilizing the entire building footprint, so using our massive space to aid in the process of vaccinating folks to fight the spread of COVID-19 made complete sense.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has activated more than 1,000 members of the Illinois National Guard to help local health departments set up new vaccination sites and support mobile vaccination teams, according to his office.

"Every day we're doing more, but let me also point out there is a vaccine shortage throughout the United States. We're getting vaccines into people's arms as quickly as humanly possible in the state of Illinois," Pritzker said at a news conference Thursday. "We're a big state, a complex state, but it's the local public health departments that take responsibility. We ship to local public health departments. They then need to put it in people's arms with their partners locally."

The federal government is expected to increase the state's allocation of vaccine to more than 100,000 doses a day later this month, according to Pritzker. On Wednesday, Illinois Department of Public Health data showed the seven-day rolling average number of doses administered rising to more than 84,000.

Information on how to register for a vaccination through the Cook County Department of Public Health is available online or by calling 833-308-1988 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Vaccinations through the county's community vaccination program are available by appointment only.

Local elected officials praised the opening of the mass vaccination site at the vacant retailer in a news release.

“It’s great to see this much-needed vaccination site open in Des Plaines, a community that suffered some of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the region earlier in the pandemic. This repurposed facility will allow residents throughout the O’Hare corridor to take that all-important step to protect themselves and their loved ones: Getting vaccinated,” said State Sen. Laura Murphy (D-Des Plaines).

“We are very happy to see that the Governor is providing a new site to have the residents of the Northwest suburbs to get vaccinated,” said State Rep. Marty Moylan (D-Des Plaines).

“We look forward to working with our county, state and federal partners to bring this mass vaccination site to the city of Des Plaines,” said Des Plaines Mayor Matt Bogusz.

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There are currently 16 state-supported vaccination sites around Illinois, including one at Arlington Heights Health that can administer up to 270 jabs a day and one in River Grove that can administer 540. In the Chicago area, only the Tinley Park Convention Center site has the capability to administer more than 1,000 doses a day.

Next week, the United Center is set to become the state's largest vaccination site yet when it begins to get shots into up to 6,000 arms a day for the next eight weeks, according to health officials. Appointments for vaccinations at the United Center open for all Illinois residents age 65 and up at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

Plans for the Des Plaines mass vaccination site was first reported by the Journal & Topics Newspapers. The Kmart opened at Lee and Oakton streets in 1967 on the site of a former pumpkin and onion farm, according to the Des Plaines Journal.

The building was renovated in 2016. In 2019, a year after parent company Sears Holdings' bankruptcy, it had become the state's last operational location of the chain. It shuttered permanently in April 2020.

“The COVID-19 vaccine site in Des Plaines is our latest step forward in vaccinating Cook County and our most vulnerable communities,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said a news release. “This new site, which is conveniently located for many residents of the northwest suburbs, will be utilized over the coming months as we progress in our program and vaccine supply increases.”