Bally’s lands $940M for casino development from Pennsylvania REIT 

The house now has a line of credit, which means gamblers in Chicago are closer than ever to getting a full-blown Bally’s Casino in River West.

Bally’s struck a deal with real estate investment trust Gaming and Leisure Properties to put $940 million toward the redevelopment of the former Chicago Tribune printing plant into a gambling-and-entertainment hub at 560 West Grand Avenue.

Terms of the loan were not disclosed. The Pennsylvania-based REIT, which often buys underlying land to lease back to gaming operators, is involved with Bally’s on a number of other deals in its 65-property portfolio, the Chicago Tribune reported. 

The arrangement in Chicago was part of a larger deal that could see Bally’s raise more than $2 billion from  Gaming and Leisure Properties with sale-leasebacks on the Bally’s Kansas City and Bally’s Shreveport properties for $395 million, and a previously announced purchase option on Bally’s Lincoln Casino Resort in Rhode Island.

Gaming and Leisure will acquire the Chicago site before development begins, apparently replacing a sale-leaseback deal Bally’s struck with Chicago-based Oak Street Real Estate Capital two years ago.

The deal comes a week after Bally’s took formal possession of the 30-acre site in Chicago, a transfer that came amid ongoing doubts about its willingness and ability to carry through on the plan as it continues to operate what was planned as a temporary casino at the nearby Medinah Center.

Providence, Rhode Island-based Bally’s likely quelled doubts with a double-barreled progress report that paired new details of its planned 500-room hotel tower — which it hopes to shift from north of the casino to the south to avoid damaging city water pipes along the Chicago River — alongside the news of the financing.

“We’ve been working hard in the background to restore the full hotel tower for Bally’s Chicago Casino and absolutely intend to meet the September 2026 opening date as planned,” George Papanier, president of Bally’s Corporation, said in a news release Friday. “We are also happy to announce that Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. has agreed to finance this entire development in a single phase to ultimately deliver a better project in a more efficient manner.”

Bally’s got a license to build and operate Chicago’s first casino after a competition that included a field of big players. Its proposal also calls for an exhibition hall, a 500-room hotel, a 3,000-seat theater and 10 restaurants.

Concerns about the project have grown since earlier this year, when word of trouble on financing surfaced. Higher interest rates and Bally’s debt weighed on the outlook in Chicago, where Mayor Brandon Johnson expressed some skepticism.

The financing seems to dispel the doubts.

“With keys to the property in hand, the new financing secured, a site plan that exceeds the original, and demolition set to start this summer, let there be no doubt that Bally’s Chicago Casino and Hotel will soon rise up along the Chicago River,” Papanier said.

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