New Chicago Bears stadium on Michael Reese Hospital site? Developers pitch $10 billion Bronzeville Lakefront plan

In the latest bid to build a new Chicago Bears stadium on the lakefront, developers and city officials pitched a $10 billion plan for a new domed development at the site of the closed Michael Reese Hospital.

The plan is being pitched by Capri Investment Group and GRIT Chicago, with support from 4th Ward Ald. Lamont Robinson, who represents the ward where the proposed complex would be built. And the developers said that if the Bears' ownership of the Arlington Heights property on which they had originally planned to build a new stadium is the impediment to keeping the Bears in the city, they will buy the Arlington Heights property.

"Moreover, and this is important so listen to me carefully, if the fact that the Bears ownership of Arlington Heights is the key impediment to the team staying downtown and fairly considering Bronzeville, our global investors that we have signed with, and I, and our team, are prepared to buy the Arlington Heights site and eliminate this conflict," said Quentin E. Primo, III, founder and executive chairman of Capri Investment Group, at a Thursday morning news conference.

Their vision is called Bronzeville Lakefront, and includes not just the stadium but also housing, cultural and entertainment facilities.

The plan calls for transforming approximately 100 acres including and surrounding the former Michael Reese Hospital site, with a new domed football stadium at its center that would hold approximately 75,000 spectators and be 1.8 million square feet.

Developers said the stadium would not just be able to host the Bears, but also other major sporting events, concerts and other national attractions.

Around the stadium, they propose building extensive new mixed income housing that would include affordable, senior, workforce and student housing options. They also propose commercial development, expanding and connecting McCormick Place to the project, a new 28 acre park with a land bridge over DuSable Lake Shore Drive, new shops and restaurants, 400,000 square feet of new offices, a new health and wellness center similar to East Bank Club, parking facilities, other retail and commercial space and more.

Developers expect it would produce 60,000 new jobs and at least $14 billion in regional economic benefits.

Developers said that unlike other proposals for the former hospital property, their revised Bronzeville Lakefront proposal is an overall investment in the city's South Side communities.

"Our vision is to make the Bears a catalyst for new housing, jobs, businesses and economic opportunity that will benefit Chicago long after the final whistle blows," said Primo in a news release announcing the plan.

Primo argued the site provides a more central and accessible location with better public transit options, providing the lakefront benefits of Soldier Field with less traffic and congestion; would allow expansion for McCormick Place Convention Center; would generate more income for the Chicago Park District through a new 28-acre park that would also be a site for Bears fan tailgating; would generate economic benefits for the surrounding community and connect it to the Obama Presidential Center and Illinois Quantum Park further south; and would generate thousands of new jobs for Chicagoans.    

The developers said their new vision also addresses objections previously raised about whether a Bears stadium could fit on the Reese Hospital site. They said their preliminary designs show the stadium would require 30 to 40 acres, including a 300 foot security perimeter needed to host a Super Bowl, which they said could be accommodated without encroaching on current active railroad operations in the area.

They also said the development would reconnect historically separate parts of the South Side through the construction of new east-west streets, pedestrian connections and the land bridge of DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

The Bears have said they are focused on possible stadium sites in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and Hammond, Indiana, but that hasn't stopped developers in the city from pitching more plans for lakefront stadiums.

Related Midwest pitched a Bears stadium site at the former U.S. Steel South Works site along Lake Michigan, near the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park quantum campus at 87th Street and DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

In late October, Crain's Chiago Business reported that lawmakers in Springfield could vote in November on legislation to make it easier for the team to build a stadium in Illinois. They cited momentum from an Oct. 1 meeting in Chicago between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Gov. JB Pritzker, Illinois legislative leaders and Bears minority owner Pat Ryan.

CBS News Chicago has reached out to the Chicago Bears for comment on this new proposal and are waiting to hear back.