Olympic boss downplays environmental cleanup at village site

Chicago taxpayers will not be left holding the bag for shifting the $1.1 billion Olympic Village to the campus of Michael Reese Hospital—even though the cost of demolition and environmental clean-up is 60 percent higher than anticipated, Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan insisted Friday.

Mayor Daley wants to borrow $85 million to finance the hospital purchase. His original plan called for Medline Industries, which owns the 37-acre property, to make a “charitable contribution” of $20 million that was supposed to be enough to cover demolition, environmental clean-up and five years of interest payments on the loan at a rate of five percent.

The higher-than-anticipated cost of demolition and clean-up has altered the equation. Ryan is trying to salvage the deal by renegotiating the purchase price.

“I don't forsee an unresolvable issue there. I think that we will resolve the issue of the environmental clean-up to the satisfaction of all parties,” Ryan said.

Pressed on whether Medline would be asked to pay more, he said, “I'm not gonna get into the details, but we're having discussions. We've got very reasonable people. We have common goals. And I think we'll resolve it. Taxpayers will not be” on the hook.

Construction of the Olympic Village was originally scheduled to be built on air rights over a truck staging area for McCormick Place.

Mayor Daley and Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) pushed for the move to the west because the village can be built on solid ground at a dramatically reduced cost and better integrated into the surrounding Bronzeville community.

As for other changes to Chicago's Olympic plan incorporating lessons learned at the Bejing Olympics, Ryan said he was “a couple weeks” away from announcing upgrades.

“We went over there to learn—and we learned a lot. Now, we're taking all of what we've learned prior to the Bejing games and including what we learned in the Bejing games. That will be the finishing off of our plans. I expect improvements that people will like,” Ryan said.