Don't use state infrastructure money for Bears stadium at Michael Reese site

There was a surprise move in the ongoing Chicago Bears stadium drama last week: Illinois House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch said that he'd be open to help fund a new stadium for the Bears — provided the venue is built on the old Michael Reese Hospital site in Bronzeville.

Welch and the state's other legislative leaders have made it clear since last year that the state won't assist in funding the Bears' current dream of building a multi-billion dollar lakefront stadium in Burnham Park just south of Soldier Field.

But if the Bears "choose a site like Michael Reese that could use economic development, that’s a different conversation," Welch told Fox 32 Chicago last Monday.

Welch said the state could be willing to spend surplus state infrastructure funds to build the roads and other necessities to make the Bronzeville stadium more accessible.

State Sen. Kam Buckner, D-Illinois — the Reese site is in his district — told Fox that up to $466 million in infrastructure cash could be available.

The Bears still own the 326-acre former Arlington Heights racetrack site, and admittedly there will be a call to spend infrastructure funds to improve the roads and interchanges around that area if the stadium ends up going there.

And Bronzeville, a historic and rebounding neighborhood, certainly could well use a half-billion infrastructure investment. But not if it's focused on helping an NFL franchise worth $6.4 billion build a stadium there.

State ‘can be helpful’

The Bears previously rejected the 50-acre Michael Reese site, owned by Farpoint Development, as being too small to accommodate a stadium. But the team began quietly eyeballing the parcel again late last year as the prospect of state funding for the lakefront site further dimmed.

The land is bounded by Metra Electric tracks to the east, 26th Street to the north, 31st Street to the south, with Prairie Shores development to the west.

Buckner told WBBM radio last week that the use of state infrastructure funds to support development is not unusual, and that he supports the idea of the state covering infrastructure costs for a stadium at Reese. "I do think that we should be able to have a robust conversation about where the state can be helpful, and if that is in infrastructure, then I think that is a prudent way to move forward," he said.

Welch's idea encourages "the Bears to be creative in their thought process [in selecting a stadium site], but also to look at parts of Chicago that have been left behind," Buckner said.

The Bears haven't signed on to building at Reese. And the team says it wants to break ground in Burnham Park this year and it still has ownership of the massive Arlington Heights site in its hip pocket.

More pressing infrastructure needs

Still, big plans have a habit of turning into reality in this city, particularly if there's a way to get the public to help pick up the tab.

And with that in mind, with all the roads and bridges across the state that are in need of repair, Illinois has far more pressing infrastructure needs than helping a billion-dollar franchise build a stadium.

And so does Bronzeville, for that matter. The state could address the way the eastern leg of the Stevenson Expressway chops off the northern tip of Bronzeville and separates it from McCormick Place and the Near South Side.

Or the state could narrow the expressway-like girth of King Drive between 35th Street and the Stevenson.

And if a stadium is built at Reese, then what happens to the $3.8 billion Bronzeville Lakefront mega-project that was planned by Farpoint and their development partners, GRIT, for the Michael Reese site, and won City Council approval in 2021?

The project promised to build on Bronzeville's heritage to create a large-scale, mixed use development that "will transform a largely vacant 50+ acre site into a multicultural and inclusive epicenter of innovation," according to Farpoint’s website.

Bronzeville Lakefront was supposed to deliver big-ticket items like a community center, retails spaces and a medical facility operated by Israel's prestigious Sheba Medical Center.

If the state just has to spend infrastructure money in Bronzeville, there's a project that can be helped along.

But when it comes to using those public funds to help along a Bears stadium in Bronzeville, Welch and Springfield should just punt.

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