Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks Owners Make $7 Billion Real Estate Bet

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/

July 24, 2024

The families behind two of Chicago’s most storied sports teams are joining forces for a $7 billion real estate development around the United Center, the arena that will host next month’s Democratic National Convention.

Michael Reinsdorf, president of the Chicago Bulls and son of team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and Danny Wirtz, chief executive officer of the Chicago Blackhawks and son of the late Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, said the two families would be investing $7 billion into the West Side neighborhood surrounding the United Center to develop a multi-use project that will feature a music hall, a 10-acre park, hotels and retail spaces.

The aim of the project is to revitalize the neighborhood around the arena, making it more walkable and friendly to residents and businesses. Wirtz gave credit to the ongoing revitalization happening within the city’s nearby West Loop, Fulton Market neighborhood and the Illinois Medical District. The families have been discussing the potential for a project of this size and scope for 10 years, he said.

“If we’re going to make a generational bet, it takes time,” Wirtz said Tuesday at a news briefing to unveil the plans.

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.”