BREAKING: Chicago Bulls President” Michael Reinsdorf and Chicago Bulls Owner Son” officially Make $7 Billion shocking project Bet including….
(Source: Bloomberg) The families of two of the most illustrious sports teams in Chicago are collaborating on a $7 billion real estate project centered around the United Center, the venue for the Democratic National Convention that takes place there next month.
In order to develop a multi-use project that will include a music hall, a 10-acre park, hotels, and retail spaces, the families of Danny Wirtz, the chief executive officer of the Chicago Blackhawks and the son of the late Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, and Michael Reinsdorf, the president of the Chicago Bulls and the son of team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, announced that they would be investing $7 billion into the West Side neighborhood surrounding the United Center.
The project’s goal is to revive the area around the arena and make it more pedestrian- and business-friendly.
Wirtz praised the continuous redevelopment taking place in the Illinois Medical District, the Fulton Market district, and the adjacent West Loop of the city. According to him, the families have been debating the possibility of a project this scale and scope for ten years. At a press conference to announce the plans on Tuesday, Wirtz stated, “If we’re going to make a generational bet, it takes time.”
The development would be built in phases over 10 years, according to the joint venture dubbed the 1901 Project. It would replace existing parking lots surrounding the United Center that the venture owns.
The two families have been longtime business partners. In 1994, they established a joint venture to build the United Center, the 960,000-square-foot (89,000-square-meter) entertainment facility where both the Bulls of the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League’s Blackhawks play.
Terry Savarise, CEO of the United Center, said the group wouldn’t travel to Springfield to ask state lawmakers for funding. Similar efforts by the Chicago White Sox baseball team, which Reinsdorf also owns, and the National Football League’s Chicago Bears have stalled.
The United Center sits adjacent to one of the city’s tax-increment financing districts, which allows for developers to recoup some costs through a reimbursement of the additional property tax dollars the project generates. Savarise said the group is open to conversations with the city about how TIF funds could support transit or infrastructure improvements for the project.
The project appears to have backing from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office, with his deputy mayor for economic development, Kenya Merritt speaking at the Tuesday event and calling the project an “incredible investment” in the West Side.
The project is also endorsed by West Side Alderman Walter Burnett, who said he lives near the United Center and has been asking for years what the families would do with the parking lots.
“So to all of the developers out there, to all of the who are looking to invest in things, invest west,” Burnett said. “Go west young man. That’s where it’s happening.”
