Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Casino Community Advisory Council is heavy on neighborhood and community development groups and light on real estate influence, despite the project’s expected impact on the River West residential and commercial markets.
The casino is the largest development project in the pipeline for Chicago in terms of investment and attention. The $1.7 billion project will be spread over a 30-acre site that’s also expected to include a hotel, a 3,000-seat theater, an outdoor music venue and other amenities. It is expected to have a significant spillover effect on development in the neighborhood, bringing in high-density high-rise development River West hasn’t had before. Two major developers, Chicago’s Shapack Partners and Vancouver, Canada’s Onni Group have already staked claims for sites near the casino, where they plan to build a 141-key hotel and a residential project.
The 19-member body announced by the mayor’s office last week consists of four neighborhood representatives and 14 “issue experts,” a term applied to members who work in urban planning, programs to address problem gambling, the entertainment business, hiring equity initiatives and community-based economic development. The prevalence of slots filled by nonprofit organizations is no surprise–it appears the mayor formed the panel in response to dissatisfaction with the project expressed by many residents of the area.
“The Community Advisory Council is going to ensure that the casino is developed with the utmost quality and addresses every concern raised by community members,” Alderman Walter Burnett, who represents the area where the casino will be located and supports the project, said in a statement from Lightfoot’s office.
A few members of the advisory work in the real estate sector. West Central Association Board Member Jose Bedolla is a real estate broker with Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty, and John Bosca, president emeritus of Neighbors of River West, owns a realty services firm. There’s also Robin Schabes, resident and volunteer chair of the River North Residents Association Development & Land Use Committee, who works as director of the Chicagoland Opportunity Zones Consortium.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the reasoning behind the council’s makeup Monday. Calls to realtors’ and developers’ groups were not returned.
Here is the full list of advisory council members:
Neighborhood Representatives
- Maurice Edwards, Cabrini-Green LAC Community Corporation
- Robin Schabes, River North Residents Association Development & Land Use Committee
- Julie Darling, West Loop Community Organization
- John Bosca, Neighbors of River West
“Issue Experts”
- Edward Warm, Chicago Independent Venue League
- Victoria Lakes-Battle, IFF
- Jose Bedolla, West Central Association
- Eunice Liao, Pui Tak Center
- Julianna Casto, American Indian Health Service of Chicago
- Darlene Oliver Hightower, Metropolitan Planning Council
- Nilay Mistry, Illinois Institute of Technology
- Jonathan Snyder, North Branch Works
- Nadia Quarles, University of Chicago
- Phillip Nicodemus, Urban Rivers
- Marty Padilla, Greater River North Business Association
- Michele Dreczynski, Near North Unity Program
- David Powe, Active Transportation Alliance
- Andrea Kluger, Chicago Federation of Labor
- Chynna Hampton, Climate Jobs IL
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