Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s plan to place a casino in River West came one step closer to realization Monday when a City Council committee advanced legislation that lays the groundwork for the ambitious development, sending it to a final vote this week.
Despite opponents warning the process was moving too fast, the casino committee voted 27-3 to send the proposal to the City Council floor, where it’s expected to see a Wednesday vote. If it prevails, the plan for Bally’s to build a $1.74 billion casino, hotel and entertainment development in River West — on land now occupied by the Chicago Tribune’s Freedom Center printing plant — will receive a key stamp of approval.
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In early May, Lightfoot unveiled the Bally’s proposed River West site as her pick among three finalists for Chicago’s long-awaited casino license. The project must win approval from both the full City Council and the Illinois Gaming Board.
Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, voted no during Monday’s committee hearing and questioned the true amount of the touted $200 million annual windfall the casino is anticipated to bring to the city’s coffers.
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Those qualms followed previous arguments from Reilly that the gambling complex will attract crime and congestion and is fiercely opposed by his constituents in River North. Before the committee vote, he evoked a common refrain he has made comparing the city’s 2008 parking meter deal to the casino plan, ramping up his condemnation of the latter.
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“This process that we’re going through, this sprint to the finish and gymnastics we’re doing today … in a way, this is actually worse than the process for the parking meter deal,” Reilly said.
Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, who also represents a close-by neighborhood, echoed his colleague’s reservations on the projected $200 million annual revenue: “This is a promise. That’s all this is.”
“This is actually worse than the parking meter deal,” said Hopkins, who also voted no. “That wasn’t a good deal, but at least we know what we got. … Our hands will be tied six years from now, ladies and gentlemen. We won’t have the ability to correct the mistake that we’re about to make.”
The council member representing the ward containing the site of the proposed casino, Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, responded that “this is a necessary opportunity for us.”
“I don’t know what else we can do,” Burnett said. “We postponed this (committee vote last week). Are we going to miss the boat?”
Meanwhile, city officials Monday defended Lightfoot’s choice by saying the process was in fact thorough and must progress immediately to help shore up government finances. The city’s CFO, Jennie Huang Bennett, said the $40 million upfront payment from Bally’s was needed as soon as possible to plug in a possible city budget deficit.
“Time is of the essence,” Huang Bennett said.
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Huang Bennett added calculations show that for every year Chicago does not have a casino open, it loses about $331 million in revenue to Indiana.
“This has been a three-year-long process that the city has undertaken for the selection of the casino in the city of Chicago,” Huang Bennett said. “This is a generational opportunity, which the city has been working toward for 30 years.”
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The city is banking on the future casino’s projected $200 million annual tax revenue to plug its public pension funding holes. If approved by the full council and state gambling officials, Bally’s aims to open a temporary casino by the second quarter of 2023 — the city says that will be located downtown at the landmark Medinah Temple building — with the permanent casino slated to open in the first quarter of 2026.
The Medinah Temple building, a roughly 130,000-square-foot structure at 600 N. Wabash Ave., has been vacant for almost two years after retail chain Macy’s moved its Bloomingdale’s store out of the site.
Reilly added that the temporary casino site, in his ward, came from a “truncated” selection process that ignored “a million potential locations” in favor for one that his residents and business owners heavily resist. To that, Huang Bennett responded that having the short-term casino closer to downtown would generate more revenue.
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Also Monday, Lightfoot’s curfew expansion for young people was deferred, with mayoral allies delaying a vote on the controversial restriction on how late children can stay out in Chicago.
Northwest Side Ald. Nick Sposato, 38th, used a parliamentary procedure Monday to postpone a vote on Lightfoot’s curfew change until Wednesday’s council meeting, when he expects the legislation to pass comfortably. Sposato, who supports the curfew change, said the support is there but he and others want to prevent opponents from delaying the vote themselves.
Lightfoot’s move to move the curfew for teens to 10 p.m. from 11 p.m. for all days of the week follows a teen’s fatal shooting at The Bean in Millennium Park earlier this month. The mayor signed an executive order to that effect and also imposed a separate directive banning unaccompanied minors from Millennium Park on weekend nights.
The mayor, who is expected to announce her reelection campaign in the coming weeks, has faced a groundswell of questions over how to address crime following a spate of high-profile violence downtown, including the May 14 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Seandell Holliday near The Bean, allegedly by a 17-year-old. Chicago police said the shooting occurred during an altercation at a time when large groups of young people had gathered at the downtown park in a scene that became chaotic.
Lightfoot responded to that spurt of gun violence by issuing an executive order creating a 10 p.m. curfew for minors all days of the week and banning unaccompanied minors from entering Millennium Park after 6 p.m. Thursday to Sunday. Later that week, she introduced the 10 p.m. curfew ordinance amendment that was delayed Monday.
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Lastly, aldermen Monday approved a $14.25 million settlement from the city for Daniel Taylor, a man who spent two decades behind bars for a 1992 double murder that happened while he was in police custody. And City Council finalized a $1.9 million settlement for the family of Jose Nieves, who was fatally shot by off-duty Chicago police Officer Lowell Houser during a 2017 argument on the Northwest Side. Houser was convicted of second-degree murder in the case.
