Further renderings and details have been revealed for the potential Bears stadium on the former Michael Reese Hospital site in Bronzeville. Located just south of McCormick Place, the plans to pivot the former Bronzeville Lakefront megadevelopment towards a stadium are being led purely by the Lakefront’s developers Farpoint Development and Golub.
Aerial View of Bronzeville Lakefront Development Site. Diagram by GRIT Chicago
Prior to covering the plans, it is worth noting that the Bears are not involved in this proposal and instead it is being pitched to the team as an alternate by Farpoint and Golub. However, late last year we covered that the team did briefly take another look at this site as its Soldier Field plans stalled in Springfield. Unfortunately the site’s size and railroad lines remained a hurdle.
Rendering of proposed stadium at Bronzeville Lakefront by LJC
Since then, the team’s plans for a new stadium on the lakefront and redevelopment of Soldier Field have made no progress in securing public funds and approval. The team did manage to settle some of its tax disputes with Arlington Heights, thus Farpoint has revealed its plans in order to help convince the team to stay in the city according to Crain’s.
Rendering of proposed stadium at Bronzeville Lakefront by LJC
The conceptual lakefront plans were drawn up by Lamar Johnson Collaborative, utilizing much of what was pitched just north by Musuem Campus. The roughly $3.2 billion domed stadium would sit on the wider southern end of the site, with the potential to build out a whole mixed-use campus to the north including 4,500 units and a large bridge/park over the tracks connecting to the lake.
Rendering of new Bears stadium at Soldier Field by Manica Architecure
That space would seasonally be used as an outdoor music venue as well, akin to Ravinia per the developer. Unlike the Soldier Field site, the Bears could develop the aforementioned mixed-use campus on this site similar to Arlington. Because of this, Farpoint believes the team can privately fund their stadium in the same way they plan to do so if they decide to go with Arlington.
Rendering of proposed stadium at Bronzeville Lakefront by LJC
Plans are pretty preliminary, with no official cost nor fledged out design on the table at the moment. It is unknown if the Bears will reconsider the site at the moment though they have stated their focus is on the other two options. With this now being public, we can also potentially assume the original plans for Bronzeville Lakefront are dead.
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I love this development, most of all!
It has space and breath and possibilities more so than the others.
Your articles about Chicago architecture are legions better than anything put out by Crains or the trib. Actual analysis vs. AI drivel or Blair Kamin rants.
Stadium is at the wrong end. The vista back to the city is blocked by buildings at the north end of the site.
Again: stupid. Arlington Heights is the only true possibility for a Superbowl-level development. Just build the damn thing.
Stop with the megadevelopments already! This empty plot of land would be a fledging neighborhood by now if we broke it up into ~500 25 * 125 ft lots and sold it to dozens of independent private developers. Instead we have to wait until 2060 for someone who is willing to bet 100 trillion dollars on a city that’s just barely avoiding population loss.
The fact that this prime lakefront land 2 and a half miles from The Loop has been left empty for so long is a sign that we need to tax vacant land much more than we currently do. Anyone who holds onto more than 10 acres of empty Chicago land should be figuring out how to either build something immediately or offload their tax burden ASAP
Totally agree, Will
All those empty lots is a plague of Chicago, especially the approach of knocking down old structures and then sit on empty lots for decades. This gotta stop
I love this new plan, it’s amazing and we will get to stay in Chicago, No body wants to go to Arlington Heights because you will lose a lot of fans if that happens