Billionaire Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto is an outlier among Chicago sports moguls for his willingness to bankroll his own, 22,000-seat, $750 million stadium on the long-dormant South Loop parcel known as The 78.
But there is a cost for Chicago taxpayers: a $425 million tax increment financing subsidy.
Mayor Brandon Johnson dropped the other shoe at Wednesday’s City Council meeting — by proposing the city subsidy needed to unlock the development potential for the 62-acre site at Roosevelt Road and Clark Street that has eluded development for decades.
The roster of TIF-eligible infrastructure projects includes construction of a 1,200-space underground parking garage that would be used for soccer games, concerts and other stadium-related events, and as a platform for an open-air plaza and future high-rise development on the site.
The breakdown includes $199 million for public structures, plazas and open space; $104 million for road infrastructure along LaSalle, 13th, 14th and 15th Streets; $11 million for Clark Street improvements; $30 million for river wall improvements along the south branch of the Chicago River; $8 million for Roosevelt Road and $34 million for Metra improvements.
Developer Curt Bailey, CEO of land owner Related Midwest, had promised a “substantial reduction” from the $450 million TIF district approved by the City Council eight years ago to bankroll the infrastructure needed to ready the site for development.
But the mayor’s request is only $25 million less.
That’s in part because of the underground parking garage that a city planner called a “creative solution to an engineering conundrum,” the 40-foot grade change between portions of Roosevelt Road and the city-built Wells-Wentworth connector that already runs through the 62-acre site — though it has never been used.
Senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee said the garage will be owned and operated by the city. A management agreement that has yet to be negotiated with the Fire will determine the city’s share of parking revenues on game and concert days, he said.
Underground parking is a lot more costly than surface parking, but it’s the only viable solution on a multilevel site like The 78, Lee said.
“The 78 is a prime asset that has sat dormant for decades because it is disconnected from the surrounding street infrastructure. The garage is underneath a pedestrian platform that’s necessary to connect Roosevelt to the site,” Lee said. “This is a necessary prerequisite to unlock that asset. It also creates a platform for future vertical development even on the structure itself, which could include housing. When future development and future housing happens, those people will also be using the garage.”
Although the Fire will not be contributing to the cost of the underground garage, Lee said, “The city will be compensated for its parking — on game days and any other day.”
The Fire released a statement that describes the underground garage as a “separate element of Related Midwest’s broader development plan.”
“The Fire will pay to lease the garage for our matches and major events, similar to our current arrangement at Soldier Field,” the statement said.
Finance Committee Chair Pat Dowell (3rd), whose ward includes The 78, refused to comment on the TIF subsidy. She has scheduled a community meeting for 6 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the mayor’s request.
Marj Halperin of One Community Near South said she needs more information about the plan to handle vehicular and foot traffic at The 78 — particularly now that a proposed CTA station at The 78 has been dropped — before determining whether the $425 million is justified.
“We’re concerned about the relatively limited access — especially from the west — because of the tracks, and we have not seen a resolution to that issue yet. There’s supposed to be an entrance from the east that’s either a tunnel or a bridge, and we don’t know yet how they’re gonna resolve that question. And we’re concerned about the traffic on Roosevelt,” she said.
“Roosevelt is a bridge. It can’t easily be widened. There’s already a lot of congestion, and the sidewalks will be extremely crowded. They’re relying on a lot of patrons coming into the Roosevelt train station from the east. That’s going to be a lot of foot traffic, and we don’t know how that will be handled.”
As for the garage, Halperin questioned why the cost is not being shared by the city, Related Midwest and the Fire. She was not appeased by the promise that the garage will be used as a platform for future high-rise development.
“I feel like we’re putting seed money as taxpayers into something that is not fully revealed to us. And if just ends up being only the stadium on that space, then we’re subsidizing the stadium, and that does not feel like the right thing for us to do,” Halperin said. “There’ve been no details about housing. We’ve been told they’re waiting to see what the market will support. … If there’s more to the development — high school, housing, other aspects — we should know about that before we sink that much money into the development.”
Tina Feldstein, president of the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance, said her biggest disappointment is the decision not to build a new Red Line station at The 78 or open the Wells-Wentworth connector.
“The rub is really about the train stop because, if you’re gonna bring that many people there, they need to come in and out. It really needs to have a heightened sense of access,” Feldstein said. “Where is that train? What happened to it? What happened to the Red Line stop? It’s gonna be needed.”