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LOVES PARK — A local health system has plans to expand into Loves Park and could have a $33 million immediate-care medical facility open by late this year.

OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center will build on a 30-acre site at the southwest corner of Perryville and Illinois 173 near the Rockford Speedway. The site will be developed into a medical and retail complex to be called Rock Cut Crossings.

Saint Anthony is one of four regional hospitals poised to expand services into northern Winnebago County.

It will spend about $33 million to build a three-story, 70,000-square-foot facility to house immediate care, family practice physicians, laboratory and diagnostic imaging, and X-ray equipment. Proteus Group of Chicago designed the building, and Ringland-Johnson Construction of Cherry Valley will build it.

Saint Anthony expects to hire doctors, nurses, medical technicians and at least one maintenance person, but it is too soon to know just how many jobs the facility will create, spokeswoman Therese Michels said. Saint Anthony will be hiring for the facility this summer.

“The time is right, the growth is there,” Michels said.

Developers and entrepreneurs recognize Illinois 173 as one of the fastest-growing retail corridors in the state.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has proposed to widen and resurface the highway within the next three years, but the $29.5 million project has not yet been funded by the Legislature. In the meantime, IDOT is reviewing the expected traffic pattern for the new Saint Anthony site to minimize disruption of the natural traffic flow on two-lane Illinois 173.

There are two other immediate-care facilities, Physicians Immediate Care, in Loves Park and Machesney Park. Spokeswoman Joanne Beyer said the company won’t be fazed by the competition because the new Saint Anthony facility will serve a population that Physicians Immediate Care can’t reach.

“I think there’s a lot of people out there that are going to be happy,” Beyer said of residents in northern Winnebago County. “For those people, it would be a service that they don’t have to drive into Rockford to be seen by a doctor.”

Saint Anthony paid $4.3 million for the land in January 2006. But it isn’t the first local hospital system to grab land in that area. SwedishAmerican Hospital bought 150 acres east of the planned Interstate 90 interchange on Illinois 173 last year for $5 million. Rockford Health System bought 252 acres south of East Riverside Boulevard for $5.4 million in 1998.

Beloit Memorial Hospital has already started building on the 123 acres it purchased for $3.25 million near Illinois 251 on Rockton Road in Roscoe. An assisted-living facility is already finished, and a 151,000-square-foot clinic is under construction.

After site plans for the Saint Anthony facility are approved, the hospital will look to sell remaining acreage to other businesses. Saint Anthony’s Michels said the goal is to put a pharmacy, bank and restaurant in the remaining space.

Loves Park officials were pleased that proposals from Saint Anthony included retail on-site because the city has no property tax and runs on sales tax dollars.

“With the growth in residential that we’ve had in our region, there’s a definite need for those (types of medical) facilities,” said Dan Jacobson, public works and development director. “I think that OSF is looking to capture an emerging market.”

Loves Park officials will consider the grounds plans at the next zoning meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.