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Chicago

Chicago mayor narrows casino bids to three

City two McCormick Place bids, from Bally and Rivers

Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot with the Hard Rock, Bally's and 78 (Getty,Hard Rock, Bally's, 78, Illustration by Shea Monahan for the Real Deal)
Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot with the Hard Rock, Bally's and 78 (Getty, Hard Rock, Bally's, 78, Illustration by Shea Monahan for the Real Deal)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot narrowed a list of bids for the city’s first casino license to three from five, eliminating proposals from Rivers and Bally’s to build at the McCormick Place convention center.

Rivers and Bally’s are still in the running with different proposals, as is Hard Rock. McCormick Place, the city’s biggest convention center, lost out after trade show organizers split on whether a casino would enhance or harm the campus.

The decision is a big step forward for a project that’s been in the works since the governor signed a gaming law in 2020 and has been talked about for decades. Proponents such as the mayor say it would boost tax revenues and help the city to generate funding for public infrastructure and to cover pension obligations.

Rivers 78 would incorporate a casino into a $1.6 billion entertainment district that’s slated to connect Chinatown with the South Loop and become the city’s “78th neighborhood,” with 2,600 slot machines and 190 table games. It would also have a 300-room hotel along with bars, restaurants, a food hall, an observation tower and a riverfront plaza.

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Bally’s Tribune bid would convert the Tribune Publishing Center on the near North Side into a $1.7 billion casin along the Chicago River near Halsted and Ohio streets, with 3,400 slot machines and 173 table games as well as a 500-room hotel. It would also have a 70,000-square foot, 3,000-seat entertainment venue and a Chicago sports museum and a Bally’s sports bar that would host celebrity athlete events, according to the gaming operator.

Hard Rock’s proposal hinges on approval of the One Central development by the city and state, which would have to give the project across 35 acres in a train yard near Soldier Field $6.5 billion to proceed. The casino portion of the project would cost $1.7 billion.

The city will host meetings on each proposal so the public can ask questions and make comments on the proposals April 5 through April 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. each night, with attendance capped at 300 seats for each meeting and residents of each proposal’s zip code getting in-person seating priority. The meetings will be livestreamed.

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