Despite myriad concerns, a City Council committee Monday overwhelmingly approved a $425 million tax increment financing subsidy to bankroll the public improvements needed to support a South Loop development anchored by a new soccer stadium privately financed by the Chicago Fire.
Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), whose ward includes the long-dormant site, muscled the subsidy through the Finance Committee she chairs by successive votes of 30-1 and 26-4 after nearly three hours of debate and discussion.
The political pushback came from all sides.
Some members questioned Mayor Brandon Johnson’s commitment to use more than half the public subsidy — $216 million — to build a 1,200-space parking garage that will serve as the “podium” for an open-air plaza and future high-rise development on the air rights above the garage.
Others, like Workforce Development Chair Mike Rodriguez (22nd), demanded a guarantee that future hospitality jobs created at The 78 and 22,000-seat soccer stadium being built by the Fire’s billionaire owner Joe Mansueto will be held by members of Unite Here.
“I don’t want … to have this to have to come where, at some point, Unite Here is on the street because, if that’s the case, I’ll be here with them,” Rodriguez said.
Downtown Ald. Bill Conway (34th) supported the $174.7 million portion of the subsidy that includes some of the public improvements. But not the $250.1 million piece that includes the 1,200-space parking garage.
“Are we funding public infrastructure or not? Or are we funding a complex whose principal purpose is to support a stadium?” Conway asked his colleagues.
“This is not just about this project. Can you imagine if the Cubs had come to us 10 years ago and said, ‘We want public money to build Gallagher Way. We want public money to build Hotel Zachary?’ We would have laughed them out of the chamber.”
Others, like Zoning Chair Gilbert Villegas (36th), accused Johnson of talking out of both sides of his mouth after campaigning against the massive TIF subsidy that former Mayor Rahm Emanuel once proposed for the now-defunct Lincoln Yards project.
“I’m in the twilight zone here,” Villegas said. “There was a campaign waged against this. Lincoln Yards was [denounced as] a ‘playground for the rich,’ yet here we are.
“The hypocrisy is just outstanding. It makes me laugh,” he said. “It’s easy to campaign. It’s harder to govern.”
After sitting through the long public gripe session, Dowell delivered a closing argument.
The Finance chair said she was “proud to complete renewal of a vacant plot of land that has sat fallow, undeveloped and unused for more than 60 years.”
“This site presents a unique challenge in that it is completely isolated, yet sits directly at the center of the connection between the South Side and the rest of the city,” Dowell said. “It represents a real physical obstruction that limits connectivity and investment on the South Side. This TIF request directly funds the infrastructure necessary to literally build up the site tying the city together.”
Deputy Planning Commissioner Jeff Cohen described the underground parking garage as a creative solution to an engineering problem: the 40-foot grade change between portions of Roosevelt Road and the city-built Wells-Wentworth connector that already runs through the site — though it has never been used.
“Without it, the northern portion of the site remains what it is today — unbuildable,” Cohen said.
Dowell said the podium “brings the site to grade at Roosevelt Road and is necessary, regardless of what is ultimately constructed” above and around.
“It is the key to unlocking the site from the isolation that has stalled every previous development proposal,” she said.
The mere promise of up to 10,000 units of future high-rise development was not enough to satisfy Housing Committee Chair Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), one of Johnson’s closest City Council allies.
“We allocated some TIF dollars [for The 78] in 2019. I’ve yet to see one [unit of] affordable housing,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
Dowell countered, “And we won’t see any if we don’t have any roads, any sidewalks, any underground utilities, any electrical, any sewer lines, any water lines. We need to have the infrastructure in place so that we can attract the residential what we’d like to see on that site.”
When Chinatown Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) complained about the city’s failure to open the Wells-Wentworth connector, Dowell vowed to “lock arms” with Lee.
Dowell also promised to push for even more mass transit improvements, possibly including the Red Line station that was promised, then scrapped.
“We plan to continue those conversations,” Cohen said. But, he quickly added, “This is not a transit-poor site.”