Friends of the Parks urged the Bears on Monday to consider building a domed stadium on the old Michael Reese Hospital site to avoid a legal battle akin to the fight that stopped filmmaker George Lucas from building a movie museum on the same site.
One day after the Bears offered to spend $2 billion in private money to help build a publicly-owned domed stadium south of Soldier Field, Friends of the Parks board member Fred Bates was not appeased by the team’s sketchy promise to create nearly 20% more open space, presumably by carefully demolishing Soldier Field while preserving its war memorial and historic colonnades.
Friends of the Parks needs a better understanding of what exactly the Bears propose, how they plan to pay for it and what, if anything, is “in the cards” for McCormick Place East and Northerly Island, Bates said. Only then can the group decide whether to use the Lakefront Protection Ordinance to mount the legal equivalent of a goal line stand.
But the group firmly believes it’s “inappropriate and legally challengeable to build a stadium on the lakefront in a way that is, essentially, a private enterprise,” Bates said.
“There are so many other extremely viable alternatives. ... there are other very viable sites around the city in Bronzeville and on the West Side. It’s puzzling to us that things that would meaningfully impact neighborhoods around the city are not being considered by the Bears. And they’re quite viable in terms of transportation access,” Bates said.
“The Michael Reese site, for example, is extremely accessible to public transportation compared to the lakefront.”
State Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, represents a district that includes Soldier Field as well as the 48.6-acre Michael Reese Hospital site that a Farpoint Development-led team plans to turn into a project known as “Bronzeville Lakefront.”
The first phase of the roughly $4 billion project is expected to include a research facility operated by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, plus senior housing and a community welcoming center on the southern portion of the property. Plans ultimately call for 4,800 residential units, with 20% set aside at reduced rents for people with lower incomes.
“I’ve heard the Michael Reese piece a lot more recently” as a Bears alternative, though “I don’t know if that fits in with what they’re trying to do,” Buckner said.
“The threat of a legal battle should not be enough to thwart a plan if it’s a good plan. But I’ve also said that they have to adhere to the spirit of the Lakefront Protection Ordinance, and there’s a clear-cut difference between private development and public/private partnerships. If Michael Reese works for the Bears and it’s not gonna be burdensome on the people, then we should talk about that,” he added. “ But we’re all kind of pontificating until we hear more specifics and more details from them.”
Scott Goodman is a principal of the Farpoint Development-led team that purchased the Reese site from the city .
Goodman said Monday he’s had “no conversations” with the Bears about possibly putting a stadium on the site, which the city bought in hopes of building an Olympic Village, only to lose the 2016 Summer Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro.
“We are thrilled that the Bears have decided to stay in the city, and we do believe they belong on the lakefront,” Goodman said. “We certainly have the acreage, so I guess that makes it a possibility.”
Friends of the Parks isn’t the only legal impediment.
Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is vowing to renew the fight he waged to keep the name “Soldier Field.” In 2001, pressured by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, the Bears agreed to never sell corporate naming rights to the stadium, forfeiting $300 million or more. Veterans groups and Quinn had pleaded with Daley to stop the “commercial desecration” of a stadium dedicated to the men and women who served in the armed forces.
As a result, Soldier Field remains among a handful of NFL stadiums without a corporate name attached.
A new stadium may not be called Soldier Field, but “if the public owns the stadium, why do you let a private corporation sell the name and collect money?” Quinn asked.
The “sketchiness of what the Bears have put out there” raises far more questions than it answers, the former governor said.
“It sounds good when you say it fast, but there is just too much information that isn’t provided to make a decision,” Quinn told the Sun-Times, such as the $580 million “we’re still on the hook for” from the Soldier Field renovation.
After spending $197.2 million to purchase the 326-acre site of the old Arlington International Racecourse, the Bears called an audible on Sunday, announcing they are prepared to invest more than $2 billion in private money to build a domed stadium on the parking areas south of Soldier Field.
The Bears released two other pivotal pieces of information in announcing that news.
First, that their plan would create 20% more lakefront open space, including more landscaping and plantings and increased public access to the lakefront. Second, that the Bears commissioned a poll they said showed support for a publicly funded stadium that would keep the team in Chicago. But after releasing the bare minimum about their hopes for a lakefront stadium, the team issue no further details on Monday.
Sources said the team felt obligated to announce something, at least, to keep the White Sox from getting too far ahead in the stadium sweepstakes. Both teams want the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority to issued bonds for stadium projects, backed by the same Chicago hotel tax as the Soldier Field renovation.
“The news cycle is swirling with the White Sox discussions and talk of joint financing proposals. And they probably wanted to make sure that they were more in control of their own narrative here,” said a City Hall source who has been briefed on the stadium plans of both teams.
“It starts with putting a flag in the ground and understanding your intentions. Then, you’ve got to put the pieces together,” that source added.
Putting those pieces together won’t be easy.
Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based consultant, has advised numerous NFL teams on stadium issues. He said the domed stadium alone likely will cost more than $3 billion — not counting deconstructing Soldier Field, improving lakefront access, creating new lakefront park space and developing bars, restaurants, etc. around the new stadium.
But Ganis said he understands why the Bears felt compelled to do something as they try to keep up with 88-year-old Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf in seeking stadium dollars and financing.
“I’d rather be on Jerry’s side than opposed,” Ganis said.
