Daley defends Olympic Village move to Reese site
Mayor Daley said today he’s moving the proposed Olympic Village to the campus of soon-to-close Michael Reese Hospital because it can be built there for dramatically less than the cost of an earlier air-rights plan.
"It is a better approach to always build on land. This is common sense. This is why the print media is in trouble -- because you didn't use common sense. If you have land, you build on the land," Daley said.
"You don't build over a railroad track because it costs you twice as much money. Simple as that. You have to build a foundation. You can build a park over it. A park has different weightage as opposed to buildings. It's strictly cost. You can do things with a park over railroads. It's much easier than putting a building on there."
Construction of a $1.1 billion Olympic Village on air rights over a truck staging area for McCormick Place -- described as the "missing tooth of the lakefront system" -- was the focal point of Chicago's Olympic bid.
The complex would house 16,000 Olympic athletes and place one-third of them within five minutes of their competition venues. Roughly another 50 percent would be 15 minutes away.
Daley was so enamored with the idea of giving his fellow South Siders access to the lakefront they’ve never had before, he vowed to develop the air rights, whether or not the International Olympic Committee ultimately chooses Chicago.
The equation changed last week when City Hall reached an “agreement in principle” with Medline Industries to purchase the Reese property and filed a zoning application to “get the ball rolling” on development.
The so-called “planned development” calls for construction of a maximum of 7,500 permanent dwelling units and 1,000 hotel rooms that could be converted into residences. A traditional street grid would be created, along with retail, parks, schools and other amenities.
Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) welcomed the change and urged Daley to create a new tax-increment-financing district within the already existing Bronzeville TIF to generate the millions of dollars needed to bankroll infrastructure improvements at the Reese site.
On Tuesday, Planning and Development Commissioner Arnold Randall acknowledged that Bronzeville is one of the city’s “older TIF’s” and that a full, 23-year increment is needed to ready the Reese site for development.
“Whether this is the Olympic Village or not, we want that [site] to be redeveloped in a quality way. We want the street grid to be put back so it connects better with the rest of the neighborhood. There’s a lot that needs to happen,” Randall said.
“We’re certainly gonna have to look at creative financing options for the village. We’re gonna need to be able to generate enough increment over a longer period of time to help pay for it. … There might be some benefit to having a separate TIF. It’s been done before with the Mercy Hospital deal. That actually was part of another TIF and was cut out. In instances where it makes sense, we’re willing to consider it.”