BRONZEVILLE — A growth group making an attempt to bait the Chicago Bears into staying within the metropolis have launched renderings of what a brand new lakefront stadium on the Close to South Aspect’s former Michael Reese Hospital web site might appear like.
The Chicago-based Farpoint Improvement is hoping the Bears ditch stadium plans for the suburban Arlington Park racetrack or a brand new Museum Campus stadium instantly south of Solider Area, the latter backed by Mayor Brandon Johnson however loathed by state lawmakers for demanding taxpayers pony up greater than a billion {dollars} to assist pay for it.
It’s been a recreation of bluffs, with the Bears preserving the door open on leaving the town, and has led to a slew of competing shiny renderings — from a dome former Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed including over Solider Area to a sprawling 326-acre “international occasions” campus in suburban Arlington Heights.
Farpoint’s proposal for a $3.2 billion lakefront stadium on the previous hospital web site in Bronzeville features a “mixed-use neighborhood” and 20-acre “park bridge” over DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
It comes with a $600 million public price ticket that builders hope might be extra digestible for state lawmakers.
“Now we have proposed a chance for the Bears to discover our web site, which is viable and the place a stadium can match,” Farpoint CEO Scott Goodman mentioned in a press release. “And it matches on the South Aspect of Chicago, bridging the hole to Downtown.”
The brand new renderings present the identical stadium the Bears drew up — simply moved and fitted into the Michael Reese web site.
The previous Michael Reese Hospital, which closed in 2009, was as soon as eyed for the athletes’ village in Chicago’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer time Olympics. The town later offered the 48-acre web site to a growth group led by Farpoint in 2021, which promised to construct a cultural vacation spot by 2035 with a pavilion, housing and retail dubbed the “Bronzeville Lakefront.”
A workforce spokesperson declined to remark Friday, however Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren has beforehand mentioned the Michael Reese web site is simply too slim for the workforce’s ambitions, in accordance with Crain’s Chicago.
The workforce lately restarted web site research in Arlington Heights as advocacy group Mates of the Parks threatens a lawsuit over the lakefront plan, which has additionally struggled to win over state lawmakers.
The workforce has run into Gov. JB Pritzker, who has repeatedly said public funding for sports activities stadiums is “not a excessive precedence” nor a “nice deal” for taxpayers.
That sentiment has turn into a sticking level in Springfield, the place state Rep. Bob Morgan, a Democrat from suburban Deerfield, lately proposed a “BEARS Act” that will require skilled sports activities groups have a .500 record-or-better in three of the final 5 seasons to qualify for public funding for a brand new stadium.
The Bears completed 5-12 final yr.
“Nobody needs to see taxpayer {dollars} wasted by billionaire workforce house owners that aren’t investing of their groups’ competitiveness,” Morgan mentioned in a press release final month. “As households throughout Illinois are tightening their belts because of the rising value of dwelling, we have to be cautious with how we spend restricted public {dollars}, particularly in the case of billion-dollar franchises.”
Mates of the Parks, which seeks to guard lakefront house and forestall crowding, efficiently shooed away a “Star Wars”-themed museum by director George Lucas from the location now eyed by the Bears. The group prefers the Bears use the Michael Reese web site.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Artwork is now deliberate to open in Los Angeles.
The Bears have discovered a champion in Johnson, who’s emphatically backing the workforce’s pursuit of its most well-liked $4.7 billion lakefront stadium.
Johnson mentioned in April his help has introduced the Bears again from “pretty much as good as gone” — and that he’s open to utilizing taxpayer funds to make sure they keep.
“Over $2 billion that the Bears possession is ready to speculate on this second, that’s the phrase that they’ve given not simply to my administration however to the folks of Chicago,” Johnson mentioned. “Now we have the possibility to do one thing transformational. We’re speaking 20 % extra open inexperienced house, we’re speaking about 24,000 jobs only for the town of Chicago and 43,000 for the encompassing area. However even long run, 2,300 everlasting [city] jobs together with 4,600 everlasting jobs for the area. Such a funding is a once-in-a-generation alternative, and we’re going to grab the second.”
Critics have referred to as stadiums a poor public funding and a drain on assets for important providers similar to mass transit and colleges. Many NFL groups have flocked to the suburbs of the cities whose names they bear for bargains and extra space to construct super-sites.
The Bears pay $6.48 million yearly to make use of Soldier Area, which is owned by the Chicago Park District, underneath a lease that expires in 2033 however will be damaged early with a penalty, in accordance with WTTW.
Soldier Area has the smallest capability — 61,500 seats — within the NFL. Some Bears followers have lengthy complained the historic stadium is tough to get to and tough to go away, with dated digs that haven’t saved up with different NFL stadiums.
Soldier Area could be torn down, save for its historic colonnades and battle memorial, underneath the workforce’s present lakefront proposal.
Take heed to the Block Membership Chicago podcast:
