Bear down south? Richton Park mayor invites team to consider building south suburban stadium

A suburban mayor is hoping the Chicago Bears’ quest for a new stadium goes south.

Richton Park Mayor Rick Reinbold invited team president and CEO Kevin Warren last week to consider his “lively and diverse suburban community” as a potential destination instead of Arlington Heights, where the Bears have complained high property taxes could block their drive for a dome at the former Arlington International Racecourse.

A 32-mile drive from Soldier Field by way of Interstate 57, Reinbold pitched the team on his village’s proximity to major highways and the Metra Electric line, as well as its position “in the middle of an affluent, middle- and upper-middle class swath of the south and southwest suburbs.”

“Richton Park, and neighboring communities Frankfort, Matteson and Olympia Fields, have a combined median household income of $98,000 annually, well above the region’s $81,000 figure,” Reinbold wrote in his July 21 letter, which was publicized Tuesday. “That leads to Richton Park being at the center of a prosperous trade area as well.”

Richton Park is the fourth suburb to publicly court the Bears since the team said in June that a high property tax assessment on the $197 million, 326-acre parcel they bought in Arlington Heights was putting at risk their vision for a $5 billion mixed-use stadium district in the northwest suburb. Mayors in Naperville, Waukegan and Aurora have all thrown their helmets into the ring since then.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has talked with Warren about keeping the team within city limits but hasn’t offered specifics on how — or where — he’d entice them to stay. The team is under lease at Soldier Field through 2033 but can break that pact at a small cost relative to any multibillion-dollar stadium project.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

A Bears spokesman declined to comment on the Richton Park overture, reiterating the team’s “responsibility to listen to other municipalities in Chicagoland about potential locations that can deliver on this transformational opportunity for our fans, our club and the state of Illinois.”

The team has repeatedly threatened to move since first calling Soldier Field home in 1971. This time, though, the team has made clear they want out of the NFL-smallest Soldier Field and into a massive, gleaming dome that they own outright.

The Arlington Park purchase marked the first time they’ve put their money where their relocation mouth is, while Warren was brought in as CEO earlier this year due largely to his experience landing a new stadium as an executive with the Minnesota Vikings.

Brian Ernst/Sun-Times file

Reinbold said by phone Tuesday that he hasn’t heard from the team, but that he’s confident Warren will recognize a “tremendous opportunity” in 1,000-plus acres of greenfield Richton Park has west of I-57.

As for whether the team could avoid a property tax impasse with local school districts — like the ones pushing back against any breaks for the Bears in Arlington Heights — Reinbold said he thinks “in the southland, we’re certainly willing, in general, to talk to and work with developers as best we can.”

“We speak the language of business here in Richton Park,” he said. “We’re willing to negotiate any and all incentives that would be needed to close the deal.”