Chicago casino bids: These investors are likely to make a pitch
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At a time when she really could use some good news, Mayor Lori Lightfoot stands to have one of the best days of her tenure on Oct. 29. That’s when bids are due for the long proposed Chicago casino—centerpiece of city efforts to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in old pension debt—and it looks she may just roll boxcars.
But while the overall prognosis looks good for Lightfoot, there are more rumors swirling around this one than at a political convention. It’s potentially millionaires versus billionaires, big-name Chicago developers competing with counterparts from the coasts, and maybe lakefront preservationists battling big-name investors.
Building a casino, of course, has been a dream of Chicago mayors since at least the early Richard M. Daley years. "People need jobs. If you don't provide them jobs going into the next century, what are we going to do, set everybody on relief (or) unemployment?" Daley put it. Ergo, the mayors asked and asked and asked, and the Illinois Legislature said no and no and no. Until, that is, Lightfoot—on her second try—was able to pass enabling legislation that had tax rates low enough to make a big casino/entertainment district economically feasible.
Lightfoot’s misfortune was that the approval came just as COVID-19 hit, raising questions about the future of any big public space that had lots of people salivating slot machine to slot machine and roulette wheel to roulette wheel. But to their credit, Team Lightfoot appears to have gone out and done a pretty good job of selling the city at a time of difficulty. Good for them.
As I previously reported, the city has expected to have as many as five bidders by the deadline, with three likely and a fourth probable. Multiple sources with firsthand knowledge now have upgraded that to three for sure and a good shot at a fourth.
None of the three wants to tip their hand. All declined or failed to reply to requests for comment. But the three reportedly are Chicago billionaire Neil Bluhm in association with a unit of Related Midwest, Bally’s and, it appears, Hard Rock.
How good their bids are won’t be known for sure until details are disclosed. But one insider tells me that all three are solid propositions and legitimate attempts to win the casino for their bidders.
Bluhm has hooked up with Related Midwest for a casino that presumably would go on the real estate firm’s property for the 78 development on the south side of Roosevelt at Clark along the south branch of the Chicago River. Gossip among insiders suggests one of the other two bidders will likely propose using land in or around the former Chicago Tribune property at Chicago Avenue near Halsted Street, which has the advantage of being close to both the Michigan Avenue hotel district and tony North Side neighborhoods just to the north where people of means may be looking for an excuse to get out of the house for a while.
The most interesting talk, though, involves property farther to the east: either the obsolete Lakeshore East building in the McCormick Place campus—perhaps just for a temporary casino while the permanent one is built—or on developer Bob Dunn’s budding One Central project that would rise on a platform over Metra Electric tracks just west of Soldier Field.
Dunn’s spokesman declined to comment. The agency that owns and operates McCormick Place, the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, denies through a spokeswoman that it has struck or discussed a casino deal with anyone.
Other intrigue comes from the continuing saga over whether the Bears will or will not end up vacating Soldier Field, whether there’s any way park advocates will countenance a casino anywhere near the lakefront, and the many hands the always adroit Mr. Blum is prepared to play. Remember, Bluhm lately has been business partners with Churchill Downs, which has a contract to sell its Arlington track to the Bears.
We ought to get some clarity soon. Meanwhile, competition is good—especially in this space.
