Chicago’s United Center Owners Buy Another Parking Lot

The sea of parking lots around the United Center will soon give way to something else: a $7 billion city within a city.

The owners of United Center have topped $100 million in land acquisitions since 2022 with their latest deal near the arena, Crain’s reported.

A venture led by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families — who co-own the arena and the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks franchises — paid just over $12 million in late May for the last parcel held by longtime operator Red Top Parking, public records show.

The site, at the southeast corner of Washington Boulevard and Damen Avenue, includes a surface lot and brick building formerly used as Red Top’s administrative office and equipment storage.

It’s the latest in a string of deals by the team owners that included a $36 million purchase earlier this year from Red Top and an $11 million acquisition of nearby parcels from Peoples Stadium Parking.

The buys laid the groundwork for the 1901 Project, a 14-million-square-foot redevelopment with apartments, hotels, retail, office and public spaces. The project received City Council approval in February.

The $400 million first phase, which the team hopes to start on later this year, includes a 6,000-seat music venue, two parking garages, a 233-key hotel and a public park. A spokeswoman for the United Center confirmed the most recent purchase but declined further comment.

Red Top’s exit marks the end of an era. Owner Dolores Secor, who has operated Red Top Parking near the arena for more than 50 years, said the latest sale completes her divestment. Red Top had operated near the stadium since before the United Center opened in 1994, she told the outlet.

The full 1901 Project calls for as many as 9,463 residential units and 1,309 hotel rooms to be built over the next 15 years, a scale that would reshape the Near West Side and potentially serve as a development anchor for the city’s broader westward investment ambitions.

— Judah Duke