OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) — A state lawmaker tells the ABC7 I-Team there is an ongoing investigation into the finances of an Oak Park safety-net hospital that abruptly closed last month.

This while the I-Team has learned the current CEO of West Suburban Medical Center was served an eviction notice last week from the property’s owner, citing millions of dollars in debt owed.

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Through a spokesperson, CEO Manoj Prasad told the I-Team the eviction notice, “is without merit,” and that he would “address this matter through the appropriate legal channels.”

While there have been many developments since West Suburban Medical Center announced it was closing March 25, former physicians and staff at the facility say the top priority needs to be reopening the healthcare facility that plays a critical role in the community.

The Chicago Medical Society and former physicians sent a letter to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker Monday, requesting “immediate state intervention” to reopen West Suburban Medical Center.

“We write to you to exercise your emergency authority to intervene in the hospital’s closure and take immediate action to reopen this critical safety-net institution,” the letter reads.

In an interview with the I-Team, Illinois’ 8th District state Rep. La Shawn Ford said several stage agencies are probing the finances of West Suburban Medical Center leading up to its closure.

“The Illinois Department of Public Health, and Department of Human Services, and [Healthcare and Family Services]; they’re all looking into this hospital and checking out the financials,” Ford said. “There’s an ongoing investigation because there’s been millions of dollars that have been provided, taxpayer dollars to this hospital to keep this afloat and it still closed.”

A spokesperson for HFS previously told the I-Team at least $30 million was loaned to the facility since 2023, including a $10 million loan one year ago.

The I-Team reached out to multiple state departments and the governor’s office for comment about the ongoing financial investigation into West Suburban’s closure but have not heard back.

Ford told the I-Team his constituents and the community is demanding a change in leadership for the beleaguered healthcare facility, and they want Resilience Healthcare CEO Prasad out.

“It closed on his watch… which means that the leadership failed the community,” Ford said. “I’m hearing every day, and this is not an exaggeration, that we need to have new leadership at the hospital.”

Dr. Vishnu Chundi is a former West Suburban Medical Center Physician and co-chair of the West Suburban Hospital Task Force to Reopen and Restore Care.

Chundi signed the letter sent to Governor Pritzker, imploring the state to reopen the facility immediately citing severe healthcare deficient for the West Side after its closure.

“The governor does have the emergency authority to open a hospital for at-need on an at-need basis,” Chundi said. “This hospital serves poor people. It serves people at the highest risk. And we call on the governor to open this hospital as soon as possible.”

Former West Suburban Nursing Director Sylvia Williams said she’s worked at the facility serving her community for nearly two decades.

“We really want to make sure that the hospital gets open and that the authorities do some investigation about why those monies weren’t appropriated to the hospitals, both Weiss [Memorial] and to West Suburban,” Williams told the I-Team. “Because we don’t see it. We’re there. We live there every day. The things that, you know, the equipment that we need… the monies were not spent on the hospital equipment.”

Among the plans in development to reopen the closed hospital includes efforts by the property owner of West Suburban and Weiss Memorial, Ramco Healthcare Holdings.

The I-Team obtained a copy of an eviction notice served to CEO Prasad and Resilience Healthcare dated April 9, claiming the hospital owes more than $10.2 million for the use of the property.

A spokesperson for Ramco told the I-Team this was the first step in a plan to remove Prasad and the current management and find another person or institution to run the hospital’s operations.

As the I-Team previously reported, more than a month before the hospital closed, the landowner had met with state officials, warning of the dire situation and need to oust Prasad and appoint a court-ordered receiver to oversee the process of finding a new management company.

State officials said they were not presented with “any viable plan to turn around their fiscal and operational issues.”

Ford hopes state officials and the community can come together to prevent a healthcare desert.

“What this hospital needs now more than ever is stability,” Ford said. “It’s been through so many challenges, and if it’s to open again, it has to open with stability and strong leadership.”

According to results from Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ISPFMRA) annual survey (see the Land Values report from the Illinois Society), cash rents on professional managed farmland held strong in 2026 and are anticipated to maintain the strength into 2027. Even though farmland price expectations have softened(see farmdoc daily article on April 7, 2026), the rental market remains strong.

2025 Leasing Incomes

Setting the stage for current market behavior requires a look at the actual earnings landlords generated during the 2025 crop year. The ISPFMRA survey defined average income as total gross revenue minus all associated expenses, including standard property tax deductions. The analysis compared three primary lease structures: share rent agreements, traditional cash rent leases, and custom farming contracts.

As shown in Table 1, which compares incomes between 2024 and 2025, landowners engaged in custom farming on Excellent quality soils generated the most substantial financial yield at $375 per acre in 2025. This return effectively compensated those landowners who assumed full liability for all crop-related expenditures and operational uncertainties. In comparison, landowners employing cash rent lease structures on identical soil quality obtained an average return of $300 per acre in 2025, while traditional crop share leases achieved an average return of $250 per acre.

Comparing the 2025 figures directly to 2024 reveals distinct shifts within specific lease structures. Landlord incomes from cash-rented fields experienced a decrease from 2024 to 2025 across the three highest productivity categories. Specifically, returns on Excellent quality cash-rented land fell by $25 per acre from 2024 levels, while Good quality land saw a $10 per acre reduction.

Conversely, traditional crop share returns experienced upward adjustments across the top three productivity classes over the same period. This increase in crop share returns is largely attributable to slight reductions in input costs coupled with strong crop yields during the 2024 to 2025 period. Consequently, landlords engaged in agreements that share both revenues and costs directly benefited from these favorable production and expenditure dynamics.

Reported 2026 Cash Rent by Land Quality

Even with the modest declines in realized 2025 landlord incomes, negotiated cash rental rates for the 2026 growing season have remained exceptionally strong. The survey data breaks down these expectations by soil productivity, revealing that while statewide averages are holding firm, there is considerable variance in what operators are ultimately paying, even for land of identical quality.

For Excellent quality farmland, the middle third of cash leases is expected to average $375 per acre in 2026. However, agreements in the upper third of the market are reaching $400 per acre, whereas the lower third averages around $320 per acre. This $80-per-acre spread highlights the substantial variability inherent within specific land quality classes, largely driven by localized supply constraints and intense competition among operators for premium acreage. Moving down the scale, the middle tier of Good quality land has an average of $325 per acre. Average quality soils sit at a reported $273 per acre, and Fair quality land averages $200 per acre. (See Table 2).

Figure 1 illustrates the history of cash rents for middle one-third leases over the past decade to provide context for the reported 2026 rates. As shown, cash rents remained relatively flat from 2016 through 2021 before increasing significantly to reach a peak in 2023. Following the 2023 highs, cash rents experienced a period of moderate decline. However, heading into the 2026 crop year, the survey data indicates stabilization of the market, with slight increases observed for higher-productivity land classes.

Average cash rental rates from 2025 to 2026 showed marginal gains across the upper three productivity classes. While the Excellent category’s 2026 median rent of $375 per acre represented a $5 increase over its 2025 level of $370, the median rent for Good quality acreage climbed by $25, shifting from $300 to $325 per acre. Similarly, Average quality land experienced a $13 per acre elevation, rising from $260 to $273 per acre. Fair quality acreage was the only class to observe a slight downturn, dropping $5 from $205 to $200 per acre. Furthermore, for landowners managing grazing operations, respondents noted that pastureland equipped with sufficient fencing and water infrastructure secured an average rental rate of $43 per acre.

Expectations for 2027

As for the agricultural economy, a majority of agricultural managers anticipate that the farm economy will either maintain its current trajectory or become better conditions in 2026. Specifically, 48 percent of respondents expect economic conditions in 2026 to closely mirror those experienced in 2025, while 33 percent forecast an improvement in the agricultural business climate.

This cautious optimism translates directly into the outlook for the 2027 leasing. According to recent survey data, industry professionals predominantly anticipate sustained rate stability or slight growth. A significant 67 percent of farm managers expect 2027 cash rental rates to remain unchanged from 2026 levels. Nine percent of respondents anticipate further rate escalations. In contrast, 24 percent of respondents project a potential softening with expectations that 2027 rates will fall below the 2026 baselines.

Summary

Results from the ISPFMRA survey indicate a stable farmland leasing environment in Illinois. While landlord net returns under cash rent agreements experienced slight compression from 2024 to 2025, reported 2026 cash rents remained resilient with marginal increases observed on highly productive land. Traditional cash rent structures remain the dominant leasing methods, and survey respondents expect these valuation plateaus to persist through the 2027 crop year.

KENDALL COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) — A massive fire destroyed a home Sunday in the southwest suburbs.

The homeowner said he was in the shower when the fire broke out in his detached garage, which set off a series of explosions before it burned to the ground.

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The southwest suburban homeowner captured video and images of massive flames burning through his detached garage Sunday afternoon.

The fire broke near River Oaks Drive and Route 71 in Kendall County, near the border of Yorkville and Oswego.

The homeowner told ABC7 people working on his detached garage first spotted the flames and then he called for help. The fire grew quickly and burned for hours.

The heat was so intense that it melted parts of his attached garage, a few feet away.

The homeowner said at one point firefighters had limited access to water, and that winds appeared be a major challenge for firefighters. He says he was grateful the winds didn’t shift the flames towards his home.

However, his detached garage, along with everything inside, is now a complete loss. The homeowner estimates hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

The good news is no one was injured in this fire, including all of his animals.