Chicago Fire Stadium Nears $425M TIF Boost
Related Midwest may get a leg up to its development of the Chicago Fire‘s new stadium at The 78 after a city committee approved $425M in tax increment financing to help with infrastructure costs at the site.
The 78 development site, photographed in 2022
The City Council Finance Committee approved two TIF agreements Monday that would help finance infrastructure in the area and lead to the completion of a city-owned parking garage. The $750M stadium is privately financed by billionaire owner Joe Mansueto.
The plan would rework the site’s TIF subsidy to transfer money from a nearby TIF district. Under Related’s original deal, created in 2019, the developer would pay for infrastructure improvements and be reimbursed with TIF money the megadevelopment generated itself.
The revised proposal would draw $287M over an eight-year period from the nearby Canal/Congress TIF District to the Roosevelt/Clark TIF District surrounding The 78, Crain’s Chicago Business reported. The move would reduce the risk for Related as the project would not have to generate new tax revenue on its own.
The full City Council’s vote on the matter is set for Wednesday.
Department of Planning and Development Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Cohen told the outlet the city pitched a TIF transfer as a result of The 78’s shift from the office and mixed-use campus proposed in 2019. The city expects those projects would have created more property tax revenue than the stadium district.
The Canal/Congress District creates over $65M of new TIF revenue each year, while the city expects the Roosevelt/Clark District to create an average of $17M each year over the next 15 years.
But 34th Ward Alderman Bill Conway criticized the proposal, telling Crain’s the money should stay available for projects in his ward. He said the pitch would exhaust the city’s resources for the maintenance of Union Station and Ogilvie Transportation Center.
The stadium broke ground in March and is slated to open in the second quarter of 2028. The 22,000-seat soccer field will be a long-awaited anchor tenant for The 78, which Related struggled to kick-start for years following the onset of the pandemic.
UPDATE, JULY 13, 5:15 P.M. CT: This story has been updated to reflect the city committee passing the project’s TIF subsidies.
