City planning officials have signed off on Bally’s revised site plan for a casino in the River West neighborhood after the gambling company was forced to fold on an initial design that would have damaged major water pipes.
City Zoning Administrator Patrick Murphey on Thursday approved Bally’s tweaked first phase of construction, slated to begin this summer on the 30-acre site at Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street, which will now see a 100-room hotel placed above the casino.
The hotel was originally supposed to go on the north end of the plot near the Chicago River, with a massive 400-room hotel tower slated to be added on top in a second phase of construction.
But that plan went bust when planners determined massive caissons needed to support such a tower would damage water pipes at that location, Bally’s announced last month. The Rhode Island-based company blamed “unforeseen infrastructure issues,” though the site had been under consideration for well over a year.
The updated plan — which was reviewed by several city departments but did not require City Council approval — puts the 100-room hotel above the casino, toward the southern end of the parcel.
It’s expected to take months for Bally’s and the city to determine where on the site to move the planned 400-room hotel tower, which the company is contractually obligated to build under its host city agreement with Chicago. It could go west of the casino structure, or near the northwest corner of the plot, near Chicago and Halsted.
“Today’s approval on relocating the 100-room hotel above the casino adheres to all city requirements, maintains the same floor area ratio we committed to when Chicago selected Bally’s as its partner, and keeps us on track to start construction on time of our world-class entertainment complex in River West this summer,” a Bally’s spokesperson said in an email.
City officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a letter to Bally’s attorney, Murphey said the revised plan “will not change the character of the development.”
The River North Residents Association, which has raised concerns throughout the casino selection process over public safety and traffic concerns in the neighborhood, said Bally’s revisions “warrant at a minimum an open and fully transparent review with opportunity for community input.”
Construction is expected to begin in July at the site, which currently houses the Chicago Tribune printing facility.
Bally’s has been taking bets since last summer at a temporary casino in the historic Medinah Temple, 600 N. Wabash Ave., which has quickly become one of the most popular casinos in Illinois — but remains far behind budget projections laid out by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The casino turned a profit of $9.3 million in January, the third-highest of 16 casinos in the state, according to Illinois Gaming Board records. Gamblers made more than 88,000 trips to Medinah Temple throughout the month, second only to Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, Illinois’ most lucrative gaming mecca.
But Bally’s downtown haul only netted about $913,000 in city tax revenue, which is earmarked for its underfunded police and fire pensions.
It’ll have to more than triple that monthly revenue rate to generate the $35 million that Johnson is banking on from the casino this year in his first budget.
