Green Light on Erie Street: Chicago's Plan Commission Clears the Way for Northwestern Medicine's 1.2-Million-Square-Foot Tower — and IMAX Is Coming to AMC River East
By Socialhood News · Streeterville ·
Streeterville had a big week at City Hall — and at the multiplex. Two significant approvals landed within days of each other that will shape what this neighborhood looks, feels, and sounds like for years to come: the Chicago Plan Commission gave its formal sign-off to Northwestern Medicine's massive new hospital tower at 330 E. Erie Street, and building permit records confirm that the AMC River East theater is in the process of adding IMAX capability to one of its auditoriums.
The Plan Commission vote, reported by Urbanize Chicago on September 22, 2026, marks a critical milestone for what will become one of the largest healthcare construction projects in Chicago's recent memory. The new tower, rising at 330 E. Erie Street, will clock in at 1.2 million square feet — a number that puts it in a category of its own on Streeterville's already institution-dense streetscape. Northwestern Medicine's existing campus along Erie and Ontario Streets is already the neighborhood's most defining physical presence, anchoring an entire corridor of medical office buildings, research facilities, and patient care centers that draw thousands of employees, patients, and visitors into Streeterville every single day. The Plan Commission's approval clears a pivotal regulatory hurdle and moves the project meaningfully closer to groundbreaking. The tower is projected to open in 2031.
For residents living near the medical campus — particularly those on the blocks surrounding Erie Street between St. Clair and Fairbanks — the Plan Commission vote is the moment this project transitions from a rendering on a planning document to an inevitability. Construction activity on a 1.2-million-square-foot tower will be felt in the neighborhood well before the 2031 ribbon-cutting: site preparation, foundation work, and the steady hum of a major institutional build-out will all arrive first. The upside, which Northwestern Medicine's campus has consistently delivered for surrounding blocks, is a dense and stable employment base, round-the-clock foot traffic that supports nearby restaurants and retailers, and the sustained institutional investment that keeps a neighborhood's infrastructure in active use.
Meanwhile, a quieter but genuinely exciting development is taking shape a few blocks away at the AMC River East 21 at 322 E. Illinois Street. NBC Chicago reported that Chicago building permit records show one of the theater's auditoriums is being converted to include IMAX capability. If completed, River East would become only the third IMAX location in the city of Chicago — joining the AMC Roosevelt Collection in the South Loop and the Regal City North on the Bucktown-Logan Square border as the only venues offering the full large-format experience within city limits. For Streeterville and the broader Near North Side, that would be a significant upgrade: currently, residents who want to catch a blockbuster in true IMAX have to travel to the South Loop or the Northwest Side. An IMAX screen steps from the lakefront and Michigan Avenue changes that calculus entirely.
The AMC River East has long been one of Chicago's most conveniently located multiplexes — 21 screens, validated parking in the Illinois Center garage, and a location that puts it within easy walking distance of virtually all of Streeterville, Cityfront Center, and the southern edge of River North. Adding IMAX to that package would make it a genuine destination theater, the kind of venue that draws audiences from across the city rather than just the surrounding neighborhood. No official opening date for the IMAX conversion has been announced, but the issuance of building permits signals that the project is actively underway.
Taken together, these two developments — a formally approved 1.2-million-square-foot hospital tower and an IMAX conversion at the neighborhood multiplex — reflect something consistent about Streeterville's trajectory right now: major institutions are doubling down. Northwestern Medicine is making a generational bet on this address. AMC is investing in an upgrade that positions River East as a marquee Chicago theater. Both moves point toward a neighborhood that continues to attract large-scale, long-horizon commitments from organizations that have real choices about where they put their resources.
Have thoughts on what the Northwestern Medicine Plan Commission approval means for your block, or excited about the prospect of IMAX at River East? Drop your take in the Socialhood comments — your Streeterville neighbors want to hear what you're thinking.
Sources:
1. https://chicago.urbanize.city/neighborhood/streeterville
2. https://chicago.urbanize.city/
3. https://www.newcity.com/2026/09/15/today-in-culture-tuesday-september-15-2026-the-princess-bride-musical-chicago-bound-imax-coming-to-streeterville-deeply-rooted-planning-dance-center/