Illinois to Audit of University Development at Related’s The 78

Illinois shelled out millions for a research center that never got built, and lawmakers want to know where the money went.

State legislators are calling for an audit of the now-canceled Discovery Partners Institute project, planned as a $285 million research and teaching facility to anchor the southern edge of The 78, Related Midwest’s 62-acre megadevelopment in Chicago’s South Loop, Crain’s reported.

The Illinois Audit Commission voted late last month to direct the Auditor General to investigate how the University of Illinois system spent the roughly $30 million in taxpayer funds allocated to the project before it was abruptly shelved.

The resolution, led by State Sen. Chapin Rose, a Republican from Champaign, will trigger a full performance audit, digging into the financials as well as the decision-making that led to the project’s collapse.

The DPI project was envisioned as an economic engine that would bring thousands of tech jobs to Chicago’s South Loop at the 1.5-acre site near 15th and Wells streets. But in October, the university abandoned the plan in favor of a quantum-focused research campus on the Far South Side. Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushed for that development, which is also spearheaded by Related Midwest.

The abandoned project’s costs include nearly $20 million to design firm Jacobs Consultants, plus payment to Clark Construction and other firms for preconstruction work for what was supposed to be a 261,000-square-foot building. None of that work will be used.

The audit could take several months. The University of Illinois has not yet responded publicly to the audit resolution.

University officials argued the revised plan reflected a more strategic and cost-effective approach given new opportunities around quantum research. U of I president Tim Killeen called it a “more effective use of the state’s resources.”

Killeen had been working on the canceled development for six or seven years, Rose told the outlet.

“We’re just starting over from scratch again with a new mission statement? It’s insane to me,” he said. “He wasted $30 million in taxpayer dollars. Someone has to answer for that.”

The university said it would pivot to a two-site model, splitting DPI’s functions between downtown Chicago and the quantum technology campus.

The state-backed DPI was envisioned as a cornerstone of Illinois’ broader push to build world-class research and innovation hubs tied to its public universities. Early plans were championed by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, and the project had secured city support under former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

— Judah Duke