The demolition of the Tribune Freedom Center has been mostly completed at 777 W Chicago Avenue in River West. Located on the corner with S Halsted Street, demolition began over six months ago on the former printing facility on the Chicago River. Replacing it will be the new Bally’s casino, hotel, and entertainment complex.
A time-lapse of the demolition can be found here.
New rendering of Bally’s casino by HKS
Although Bally’s scored $940 million in funding mid-last year, demolition and fundraising efforts haven’t been as smooth since. Last December, a large portion of the outer wall of the Freedom Center fell into the river, momentarily pausing demolition for clean up efforts. Luck was in the air for Bally’s as they faced no fines for the contamination.
Photo via Building Up Chicago
The Chicago Tribune Freedom Center, laid bare by demolition for Bally’s Casino. Photo by Daniel Schell
Around the same time, the first controversy around the casino’s stock offering came up. Bally’s plans to raise $250 million for the project via equity which can be purchased by locals. However, Bally’s warned about heightened crime and unrest in the city as an investment risk.
Soon after, Texas-based American Alliance for Equal Rights filed a lawsuit against Bally’s and the city over the goal for 25-percent of that equity to be owned by diverse groups. It’s worth noting this was a requirement for best efforts and not a hard number. This remains unresolved.
New rendering of Bally’s casino by HKS
If the casino manages to raise the funds and clear the lawsuit, the final product will contain a massive casino building with a 3,000 seat theater, six eateries, 2,500 car parking capacity, and a 34-story hotel tower. This will contain 500-rooms and be supported by a small public park leading down a new portion of the riverwalk connected to the casino.
Rendering of temporary casino at the Medinah Temple via Bally’s
With a total cost of $1.7 billion, Bally’s originally committed to completing this final complex by the end of 2026, with construction still a few months away. This has left many doubting if it will meet that date, especially with the temporary location nearby still not reporting the numbers Bally’s wanted. However, no changes to the timeline have been made.
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Looks like it may not start construction until 2026….That’s ok. No one really wants this anyway…The temporary casino in the Shriner building is very sad.
Roast me as much as you want – I find it hilarious how to make yourself sound more right people broadly say “nobody wants” as in — as an objective fact that 100% of people in the world (or Chicago) don’t want this lol.
I doubt that.
nobody wants it
I’m convinced that until Chicago gets a new mayor, this slowdown in investment will remain
I don’t think that builders and their investors have a lot of confidence in this place since Johnson took over. Hopefully things change and Chicago can start seeing a new wave of investment and projects
There has been a broad slowdown across the country since interest rates started rising. While local administrations certainly do affect the investment climate, I think we are seeing local impacts of national trends more than just one elected official. There is also property tax unpredictability, due in part to disagreements between the County Assessor and the Board of Review.
On the other hand, we have seen a lot of smaller projects that are less dependent on large funding sources. The “Cut The Tape” initiative could lead to significant positive results. I’m not writing this to be pollyannaish about the mayor, but he is just one part of a much larger picture.
Time to move the casino to the 1901 Project with a Pink line stop at Madison. Makes a heck of a lot more sense.
If they are not making big bucks in the middle of tourist heavy River North, they are not going to make more in this place.
Bally’s is nuts! Who’s going to go there? Even if people did, you have single lane traffic in and out of the area which is already congested. For the most part, area residents don’t want them there. It’s a financial albatross. If I were them I’d cut bait and run. This ain’t your kinda town.
It’s a weird area to begin with and the area near the proposed spot has nothing going on. It kind of needs any investment it can
Exactly! Walter Burnett, Lori Lightfoot, Brandon Johnson, and the leadership at Ballys ALL want this. Then throw in the degenerate gamblers who would rather come here than drive to Indiana. To say “nobody wants” this is utter BS when there are probably dozens–maybe even hundreds–that do. Way to keep ’em honest, Big C!
The new Bally’s Casino & Hotel complex along the river in River West is a done deal. Actual construction will likely take place as scheduled. The majority of Chicagoans want a more diversified taxing base to offset the need for future property tax increases.
Not only will the project revitalize our local economy, but it will also result in more tourists traveling between Navy Pier and the new Bally’s complex which will draw far more visitors and revenue than the temporary casino in River North.
This has the appearance of a slow moving disaster simular to the sale of the Skyway and the Parking Meter sell off. Unfortunately City leaders keep trying to bail out our city with a leaky bucket. Yet the city still soldiers on, gotta love it unconditionally sometimes.
The Skyway and meter deals were huge successes. Traffic moves on the Skyway when it sits everywhere else and Chicago has one of the most modern user-friendly meter systems in the world.
Ok, who is paying off Truth Be Told because DAMN
Yes, selling a 800 billion dollar asset for 1.1 billion and then spending all the money in two years was a “huge success.”
Unfortunately revenues from the Skyway and parking meters are private and do not contribute to our city’s desperate need for revenue.
They contributed billions that kept the property taxes from escalating at the time. The city squandered the money but if they had been kept the money would have still been squandered. Had they been retained do you honestly believe that our finances would be in any better shape? Not if you pay attention. At least this way we have two things that work as they should in this town. And every worker (each one a future pension timebomb) that worked for the Skyway or Streets and Sans that now work for a private employer represent that many fewer timebombs for the future. All of Japan’s transportation infrastructure is private and it’s awesome.
this DOG of a project has been cursed from the start