Chinatown residents expressed concerns about the Chicago Fire’s proposed soccer stadium on the vacant South Loop lot known as “The 78,” saying Wednesday that the development could price out longtime residents and small businesses.
Affordable housing, the future of Ping Tom Memorial Park and economic impacts from the stadium project were at the center of a community meeting Wednesday night at the Pui Tak Center.
“At this point, the main concern is the worry about displacement and maintaining affordability,” said Grace Chan McKibben, director of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, which hosted the meeting. “We want to keep Chinatown as a legacy — businesses as well as long-term residents. We’d like to keep folks as much as possible.”
The Fire and land owner and developer Related Midwest tout the project as a “vibrant” mixed-use community that will pump billions of dollars in private economic investment in the city, including a $2 billion annual impact and $150 million in annual tax revenue.
The megadevelopment would bring at least 10,000 construction and service jobs, 5,000 permanent jobs, and up to 1,000 affordable housing units, according to Related Midwest.
Chinatown residents were largely skeptical about the affordable housing, questioning its specifics and pointing out that what’s affordable on the north end of The 78 — in the South Loop — may not be affordable on the south end of the 62-acre site near Chinatown. The south end of The 78 abuts Ping Tom Memorial Park, worrying some Chinatown residents about what could happen to the park.
Related Midwest received “overwhelming support” for the project from stakeholders in the South Loop and Chinatown during a public meeting it hosted earlier this month, a company spokesman said in a statement. The company said it has been working with local stakeholders and constituents to ensure they reap the benefits of the project.
The Ping Tom Park Advisory Council has invited Related Midwest to its Aug. 6 community meeting, and Alds. Nicole Lee (11th) and Pat Dowell (3rd) are coordinating a separate meeting to hear more comments from Chinatown residents, McKibben said.
McKibben said the coalition hasn’t taken a strong stance yet on the planned stadium, as it did when it firmly pushed back against a proposed casino on the same site.
“A soccer stadium is a positive development, and it could bring a lot of benefits. But we’d like the benefits to also benefit all the surrounding communities,” McKibben said.
Joe Mansueto, the billionaire owner of the Fire, would bankroll the $650 million soccer-only stadium on the riverfront, but tens of millions of public dollars would be needed to develop the long-dormant site.
Andy Chen, 47, who lives in University Village and commutes to the Chinatown area for work, questions whether neighbors will reap the benefits that Mansueto and developers have pitched.
He said the area should be turned into a community land trust, which could give residents more control over its fate.
“Here we’re fighting for a voice in land that should be available to everybody,” Chen said.
