Overview
- Developers Capri Investment Group and GRIT Chicago publicly rolled out the Bronzeville Lakefront plan on Thursday, Nov. 12, proposing a 100-acre mixed-use district centered on a 75,000-seat domed stadium.
- The proposal expands the Michael Reese footprint by adding adjacent Prairie Shores property and using air rights over the McCormick Place marshaling yard to avoid disrupting active rail lines.
- Developers said the district would include more than 5,000 mixed-income homes with at least 1,000 affordable or senior units, a 28-acre park, new transit stations, hotels, office space, and thousands of construction and permanent jobs.
- The financing framework is preliminary and blends private capital, Bears-tied revenue streams, refinanced Illinois Sports Facilities Authority bonds, tax increment financing, and state infrastructure funds, and developers offered to buy the Bears’ Arlington Heights site to remove that obstacle.
- Major hurdles remain: the Bears have not endorsed the plan and continue due diligence on Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana, local leaders demand tenant protections and replacement housing, and Illinois lawmakers return Nov. 17 with a narrow window to act on stadium-authorizing legislation.