Olympic Village might replace Michael Reese
'16 GAMES | City deal for hospital site may mean shift from McCormick Place air rights
It looks like the proposed $1.1 billion Olympic Village will be making the move west -- from a site that would have been built using air rights over a truck-staging area for McCormick Place, to the soon-to-be-shuttered campus of Michael Reese Hospital.
The Daley administration has reached an "agreement in principle" with Medline Industries, owner of the 37-acre hospital campus, and filed a zoning application to get the ball rolling on development.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
(John H. White/Sun-Times)
Michael Reese is closing because of financial troubles.
The "planned development" application was quietly filed at Wednesday's City Council meeting.
Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan has said the Olympic organizing group has been eyeing the hospital campus.
On Thursday, Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky said, "We'd consider [the hospital site], providing it meets the needs environmentally and the planning needs for the city.''
The application calls for construction of a maximum of 7,500 permanent dwelling units and 1,000 hotel rooms that could be converted into residences. A street grid would be created, with retail, parks, schools and other amenities. During the Olympics, athletes would share living quarters.
The application says the project is for "the construction of an Olympic Village'' and that if Chicago is not selected in 2009 to host the Games, the permit should continue to cover a planned development.
"Whether or not we're awarded the Olympics, we need to plan for the future of this large site," said city Planning and Development spokesman Peter Scales.
Scales said the application was filed "with the permission of the current owners.'' The city has agreed to buy the property for an unspecified price, pending a closer evaluation that includes an examination of environmental conditions.
Medline said it is still evaluating its options.
Originally, under the air-rights idea, $50 million in fees would be paid by private Olympic Village developers to help cover the cost of an Olympic Stadium in Washington Park. How that figure would be covered under a move to the Reese site was unclear Thursday.
Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) has been touting the Reese site for 18 months as an alternative to the air-rights site. Using the hospital site would lower construction costs and integrate the project into the surrounding neighborhood, she said.
On Thursday, Preckwinkle welcomed the first concrete step toward making it a reality. "I've always thought it made more sense to actually build on dirt,'' she said.