City announces three finalists for Chicago casino; two proposals for McCormick Place not on list
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Tuesday that the city has shortlisted three bids for a casino within the Chicago city limits.
Two proposals for a casino at or adjacent to McCormick Place did not make the cut.
The proposals that were approved are as follows:
Bally's Corporation Proposal for the Chicago Tribune Publishing Center
Bally's submitted two separate proposals for a Chicago casino. The finalist is a $1.74 billion project at the 30-acre Chicago Tribune Freedom Center publishing plant along the Chicago River near Halsted and Ohio streets.
The site would include 3,400 slot machines and 173 table games; a 500-room hotel; six restaurants and cafés, as well as a food hall; three bars and lounges; a 3,000-seat, 70,000-square-foot entertainment venue; 20,000 square feet of exhibition space; a sports museum; and an outdoor/rooftop space with bars, lounges, and pools.
Bally's also would seek to place slot machines at both O'Hare and Midway airports.
The Chicago Tribune prints its newspapers – and some competitors' newspapers – at the Freedom Center, but its lease at the site runs out in June 2023, with an option to renew for 10 years, but Bally's also holds an option to purchase the site.
The Bally's bid for this site includes a temporary facility adjacent to the Freedom Center by retrofitting an existing building.
Bally's would provide an upfront payment of $25 million to the city this proposal is awarded.
Residents in River West are pushing back - raising concerns of traffic congestion, noise, and crime.
Mike Riordan, president of the River North Residents Association said in a statement in part: "We will vigorously fight for quality of life issues that will be severely and negatively impacted by a casino at the Tribune site."
Hard Rock Proposal for One Central
Hard Rock International is proposing to build its casino within the massive proposed One Central development, which is itself still just a concept that has yet to receive city or state approval as it seeks $6.5 billion in state financing.
The One Central development seeks to cover a 35-acre train yard near Soldier Field with a massive platform where the developers would build residential, retail, dining, and office space.
Hard Rock's proposed $1.74 billion casino within the One Central project would include 3,400 slot machines and 166 table games; a 500-room hotel; eight restaurants and cafés, and a food hall; six bars and lounges; a 3,500-seat Hard Rock Live, Rock Spa, Hard Rock Music and Entertainment venue.
An exhibit from Hard Rock provided by the city did not specify if this proposal would include an upfront payment to the city.
As CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported, the Hard Rock Casino proposal also comes with concerns - as the entire development could to take about 20 years and cost taxpayers nearly $6.5 billion.
"Somehow, he got that passed in the middle of the night. Twenty years of environmental concerns. Twenty years of driving pylons into the ground," said Maureen Joyce of the South Loop Concerned Coalition.
The coalition was formed after One Central announced its plans.
"Quality of life - it's all about quality of life," Joyce said. "There is nothing good that can come out of this for the South Loop."
Rivers Chicago Proposal for The 78 Development
Rush Street gaming proposed this Rivers Casino project within the 62-acre riverfront megadevelopment known as The 78, located between the South Loop and Chinatown.
The $2 billion casino proposal for The 78 site would create an eight-acre entertainment district with 2,600 slot machines and 190 table games; a 300-room hotel; eight restaurants and cafés, as well as a food hall; five bars and lounges; a riverfront plaza; an observation tower with indoor and outdoor viewing space; and a Harbor Hall riverfront entertainment venue with rooftop space.
The temporary casino for this project would be a riverboat docked on the Chicago River within The 78 development site.
The exhibit provided earlier by the city made no mention of an upfront payment for this proposal.
"We have spent countless hours analyzing each proposal for Chicago's casino license and have determined Bally's Tribune, Hard Rock Chicago, and Rivers 78 best fit the core goals we want to achieve for the City's first integrated casino-resort," said Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a news release. "Each proposal offers economic, employment, and equity-focused opportunities for Chicago, while simultaneously enhancing the City's cultural, entertainment and architectural scenes with world-class amenities and design. Our teams look forward to heading into discussions with the finalists and getting one step closer to bringing this decades-long project to fruition."
One of the two submissions that did not make the cut was for a Bally's Corporation casino at the McCormick Place Truck Marshaling Yard – a 28-acre staging area for freight trucks just south of the convention center complex at 31st Street and DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The other was another Rush Street Gaming proposal for a Rivers Casino development at the underused Lakeside Center at McCormick Place.
The Lakeside Center has been the subject of calls for redevelopment for several years. In 2016, after Friend of the Parks objected to a plan to place the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on the site of a parking lot south of Soldier Field, Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed tearing down the Lakeside Center and placing the Lucas Museum there instead.
Ultimately, filmmaking icon George Lucas decided not to build in Chicago. The Lucas Museum is now under construction in Los Angeles.
For the proposed casino, each of the three finalists and the city will participate in a community engagement meeting in which the public can ask questions and issue comments. The meetings will take place from April 5 through April 7 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will be live-streamed. In-person priority will be given to those who live in the ZIP codes where each proposed casino will be built, with additional space on a first-come, first-serve basis with a capacity cap at 300.
The meetings will be held at the following times and locations:
Tuesday, April 5: Hard Rock
Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St.
Wednesday, April 6: Bally's Tribune
Tribune Publishing Plant, 700 W. Chicago Ave.
Thursday, April 7: Rivers 78
Isadore and Sadie Dorin Forum, University of Illinois at Chicago, 725 W. Roosevelt Rd.
After the meetings, the city will continue discussions with the shortlisted teams, and a winner will be selected.
