A Chicago architectural firm on Wednesday released renderings of a plan that would put the Bears in a new domed stadium at the site of Bridgeport’s Rate Field — and potentially help bolster a plan for the Chicago White Sox to move to the South Loop.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill posted the renderings to their Instagram page Wednesday, saying the plan would create a new home for the Bears in Bridgeport, with a mixed-use district that would bring together housing, entertainment, hospitality, parks and public recreation. The firm noted that the transportation infrastructure is already in place at the site, with access to the CTA, Metra and the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Renderings of the plan that are being distributed to stakeholders say the stadium and campus is “presented by Sterling Bay.” The architect who crafted the plan told the Sun-Times Skidmore is “not driving this deal although we love the idea of keeping the Bears in Chicago.”
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“We have also identified a large amount of publicly-owned land surrounding the site that could transform the stadium into a district with more affordable and market-rate housing, civic amenities and new and improved pedestrian bridges to bring lasting vitality to the surrounding neighborhoods,” the architectural firm said.
Sources said the plan would include moving Wentworth Gardens, a nearby housing development, which would certainly meet some resistance.
But a Bears stadium at the site, which is owned by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, could mean that the team could avoid paying property taxes, a major selling point. There’s also the built-in infrastructure, with the potential for federal transportation funds as well.
All of the chatter comes as Canal Edge LLC — a company owned by White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia — released plans in September for a mixed-use development called The Railyards, which would move the Chicago White Sox to the South Loop. The stadium would sit alongside the Chicago River stretching from Roosevelt Road to the north to 18th Street to the south, and bordered with the river on its east side and Canal Street to its west.
The move came hand-in-hand with Ishbia’s companies helping to finance Amtrak’s move while purchasing the existing rail facility, which it wants to develop as a site for a proposed new stadium for the South Side team.
That plan has met some major community resistance because Amtrak initially had received more than $600 million and a “categorical exclusion” from the federal government for the project, which allowed it to move forward without a full environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement “unless there are extraordinary circumstances.”
However, the Federal Railroad Administration this week said Amtrak’s new proposed maintenance facility in Bridgeport would undergo a federal environmental review after community pushback.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office on Wednesday offered up little details, saying in a statement to the Sun-Times that “the Mayor knows that Chicago is and should remain the home of the Bears and will continue to work with stakeholders across the region to do so.”
Bridgeport Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) said she is intrigued by the possibility of having the Bears replace the Sox on site that now includes Guaranteed Rate Field, even though there are more far more questions than answers about the 11th-hour plan. Lee and Cook County Commissioner John Daley have been embroiled in the battle with Amtrak Ishbia to prevent the Sox from leaving Rate Field for the South Loop. That plan also entails the construction of the Amtrak maintenance site in Bridgeport.
“I’m absolutely interested in conversations about what’s possible on this land — especially because the Sox haven’t necessarily talked to us about what it would take for them to stay. So, I think that’s a great conversation to be having,” Lee said Wednesday.
“The plans are — they’re real pretty pictures. But there’s still a lot we need to have extensive conversations about.”
Rate Field was built by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (ISFA) and bankrolled by an increase in the hotel tax. Another $50 million in outstanding stadium authority bonds were used to fund a renovation of the Sox stadium and won’t be retired until 2029, when the Sox lease there expires.
Lee said she is “glad that people are looking at the ISFA property as something that has great potential, which is something that we’ve been saying for a long time.”
It’s not the first time that a Chicago developer and its handpicked stadium architect has showcased dazzling stadium renderings.
“Pretty pictures” have accompanied plans to build a Bears stadium at the site that once housed Michael Reese Hospital, and the plan once championed by Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf to build a new Sox stadium at the South Loop parcel known as “the 78.” That’s where the Chicago Fire’s billionaire owner, Joe Mansueto, is financing his own $750 million soccer stadium with help from $425 million in taxpayer-funded infrastructure improvements.
Both of those earlier stadium plans have, so far, gone nowhere.
More recently, Ishbia showcased his own plan to build a new stadium on the site of the Amtrak maintenance facility in the South Loop across the street from the 78. Asked whether she believes the plan to build a Bears stadium in Bridgeport is real, or more like a Hail Mary pass, Lee answered, “I don’t know. I have not had any conversations with the Bears at all about a potential move to our area.”
“It’s interesting the timing of everything right now knowing that Sterling Bay is also working with the Canal Edge folks as well with regards to the rail yards,” the company owned by Ishbia.
Lee said she looks forward to talking to stadium developers about “what’s possible on 35th Street…That’s gonna need to involve the state because the state owns all of that property.”
“Different here than with the Amtrak maintenance facility, this land is in a planned development and it would be subject to all of the city’s planned development requirements. So, we’re a long way off,” Lee said. “The timing is interesting, and the players are interesting.”
Lee said she has long found it strange that the Bears stadium search has dominated the public conversation and political debate even though the team’s lease at Soldier Field does not expire until 2033.
“The fact that the Sox lease is coming due sooner was a little frustrating,” she said. “I’m happy that there’s at least some other conversations going on about what the future of all of these teams is.”
If the Skidmore plan ever does take off, Lee said, “They’re gonna be building a whole complex and there are some things that would need to come down” and be demolished. She refused to reveal specifics. “That is why this is so far away from being real,” she said.
Gov. JB Pritzker has been driving talks as of late, meeting again last month with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose repeated visits to Illinois might suggest the league’s not thrilled at the prospect of breaking ground on a Hammond dome.
Pritzker has supported the broader concept of allowing the Bears to negotiate a discounted payment in lieu of taxes, known as PILOT, with local governments. The Illinois House passed such a bill this spring, earning critical support from Chicago Democrats because it would’ve shared proceeds with homeowners as property tax rebates — but those returns were deemed “negligible.”
In the Illinois General Assembly, sources familiar with the negotiations say the conversation has shifted toward the stadium authority model. That would mean no tax bill for the Bears — and it’d keep the door open to Chicago, providing vital cover for city legislators loath to pave the team’s path to Arlington Heights.
Sterling Bay CEO Andy Gloor did not immediately return a call from the Sun-Times on Wednesday. ISFA said it had not had any conversations with Sterling Bay about the Bears plan.
The Bears declined to comment, and the White Sox did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Contributing: Sports reporter Pat Finley