The developer working with the White Sox to build a new stadium in the South Loop said Monday he is trying to forge a “financing partnership” with the Bears that could pave the way for Chicago to build two new stadiums at the same time.
“Wouldn’t it be unbelievable for our city if you were to see two amazing facilities for these great sports teams built at once?” said Curt Bailey, president of Related Midwest, which oversees the vacant 62-acre site known as “The 78,” where the new White Sox ballpark would be built.
“I’m a Bears fan. I want to partner with the Bears to create these two great environments and make our city even better. Yes, we have spoken with [the Bears] and I am very optimistic on putting together something with that great franchise. … They’re a terrific franchise, and we look forward to both trying to do something great for the city of Chicago at the same time.”
Bailey said he hasn’t seen the renderings of a domed lakefront stadium south of Soldier Field — possibly surrounded by a hotel and entertainment district accessible to public transit — that the Bears have shown to state legislative leaders, including House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside. But he supports the concept.
“That sounds awesome, and I am for that,” Bailey said. “We’re working with them … to have a financing partnership that makes sense for us and for them and for the city and the state.”
In an exclusive interview Monday that marked his first since the Chicago Sun-Times broke the news that the White Sox were in talks for a South Loop stadium, Bailey made the case for the massive public subsidy needed to anchor and jump-start development on the long vacant parcel at Roosevelt and Clark.
How to pay for it
The financing plan has three major elements:
- A “35- to 40-year extension” of bonds issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority backed by the same two-percentage-point hotel tax increase used to finance the renovation of Soldier Field.
- A “sales tax overlay district” requiring the city, state and county to forfeit part of the sales tax revenue generated within the project boundaries. That revenue would “primarily serve as backup … to make sure bond holders are still taken care of when there are outlier events like COVID or 9/11” that cause hotel tax revenues to plummet, Bailey said.
- A $450 million subsidy from the tax increment financing district created to bankroll infrastructure improvements needed to develop the site, which has railroad tracks running through it. Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf put a $900 million price on that work, but Bailey cut that estimate in half, and argued the entire investment is well worth the return.
It will unlock $7.5 billion worth of private investment over the next decade, with Phase One including the 35,000-to-38,000-seat stadium, two apartment buildings, a hotel and office building and dozens of bars and restaurants along a reinvigorated and extended Chicago Riverwalk that would reach from Lake Street “all the way down to our site,” Bailey said.
In Chicago, “when a game lets out, you will have dozens of boats waiting to take people right back into downtown,” Bailey said. “You’re talking about the largest private investment in history in the city of Chicago. … What you are getting for this public investment is a massive, massive return.”
Bailey also wanted to dispel what he called an incorrect public perception that there’s “a billion dollars sitting out there for us to use” in an existing tax increment financing district created for The 78.
“Those dollars that will be used on the site are dollars driven by the development on the site only,” Bailey said. “If those buildings don’t get built — if the site sits for another 50 years as a dirt field like it’s sitting today, there are no taxes created on the site, so there’s none to be used.”
Bailey acknowledged he needs the stadium to unlock the development potential of the 62-acre site, calling it “one of the great pieces of real estate available in the country.”
The only concrete project on the board for now is a University of Illinois technology research center and school, the Discovery Partners Institute. Infrastructure work on that project will will use up another $100 million subsidy from the TIF, in addition to the $450 million for the balance of the site.
But it’s important to avoid opening “this incredible new school that will drive innovation and companies being started in our city ... into an environment at The 78 where we don’t have things for those students and those professors to do,” Bailey said.
“We absolutely need an anchor to make this project work,” he said. “To drive the infrastructure. To drive the energy, the need for restaurants and retail and bars and places for people to come. ... From Amazon to the casino, we’ve been searching for that. Ultimately, housing the White Sox … is the absolute best outcome.”
What’s next for Guaranteed Rate Field?
If the White Sox move, Guaranteed Rate Field, the team’s current home, would need a new tenant — or two.
Local Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) has told the Sun-Times her beloved Sox “can’t leave us with a hole” in Bridgeport.
Bailey said he’s already working on a plan to accommodate Lee’s wishes and the long-term needs of her South Side constituents. He’s “having conversations” with the city’s men’s and women’s professional soccer teams — the Chicago Fire and the Chicago Red Stars — about possibly refitting Guaranteed Rate Field for soccer and developing the sea of surface parking lots that surround that stadium by building a “new neighborhood.”
“We can’t do it alone. … We absolutely would like to be a part of that development. We think that we are well-suited to create a great environment there and build some really terrific housing, much like we have done in lots of other parts of the city,” Bailey said.
For now, Bailey added, the plan would be for about 1,400 housing units. There’s potential for even more, but some surface parking for the stadium would still be needed.
Bonds used to renovate Soldier Field were issued by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and backed by the same 2 percentage point increase in the hotel tax that Related Midwest and the White Sox are eyeing to help bankroll the new stadium, estimated to cost $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion.
Those Soldier Field bonds also have balloon payments at the end, the result of modifications that salvaged the deal after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The payments go from $56.7 million this year to $90.5 million in 2032, when the Soldier Field bonds would be paid off.
Another $50 million in outstanding stadium authority bonds were used to fund a renovation of Guaranteed Rate Field and won’t be retired until 2029, when the Sox lease there expires.
Financing plan ‘not done’ yet
The new plan calls for all $589.1 million — including $375 million in principal and $214 million in interest — to be paid off by the new bonds.
Whenever hotel tax revenue fails to grow at an annual rate of 5.5%, Chicago taxpayers must make up the difference. That’s happened three times, and twice in the last three years. The biggest deficit was $27.3 million in 2022.
Bailey said, “We’re not done with what the financing will look like” and that the “numbers are a bit fungible right now.”
But, he flatly stated, “There are no plans to raise the hotel tax” to bankroll new stadiums for either the Sox or the Bears.
Pressed on where the money for both stadiums would come from, Bailey would only say, “We’re working on it.”
Bears spokesman Scott Hagel refused to comment on the possible financing partnership with the Sox and Related Midwest. A spokesman for Mayor Brandon Johnson also declined to respond.
As for Gov. J.B. Pritzker, his deputy chief of staff, Jordan Abudayyeh, responded: “We have not been in any discussions about this plan or any of the White Sox plans yet.”
Pritzker’s previous stance on public financing for sports stadiums “remains the same right now,” she added. Last week, the governor had said he was “reluctant” to provide public subsidies for a new White Sox ballpark in the South Loop unless he’s assured taxpayers will see a long-term benefit.
Bailey likened the Sox quest for a new home at The 78 to the stadium development in suburban Atlanta known as “The Battery.”
Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, is a stadium-anchored mixed-used development with hotels, restaurants, shopping and other entertainment and business uses within walking distance of the stadium.
“We’re looking at places like Atlanta and what they did — driving 10 million visitors last year to their ballpark, which is not in downtown. It’s 30 minutes outside of downtown Atlanta. But they did a good job building a ballpark in an ancillary neighborhood, and they got 10 million visitors. Think about what this would mean for the city. So while we talk about the ballpark, and that is important, we’re talking about a massive new investment in downtown Chicago.”
