Chicago Fire to lease Chicago Housing Authority land on Near West Side

The Chicago Fire signed a lease on Monday with the Chicago Housing Authority to build a 23-acre soccer practice facility on the Near West Side.

After plans for a facility in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood fell through, the team will build a 53,000 square-foot, two-story performance center with multiple soccer pitches in Roosevelt Square on the site of CHA’s former ABLA Homes housing complex.

The deal comes after months of controversy surrounding the development, with the City Council initially blocking the deal and then reversing course in September 2022 and with housing advocates expressing their disapproval of CHA land being used for non-housing purposes.

“The Chicago Fire, one of our city’s greatest sports teams, deserves to have a high-quality training facility that not only meets their needs but fosters the growth of talented athletes,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a news release. “This potential new facility will both fulfill this need and provide the surrounding West Side community with job opportunities, recreational activities, and community gathering spaces. Additionally, the millions of dollars in rental income generated by this project will support the CHA’s efforts to rehabilitate and build affordable housing in the surrounding areas.”

[ The Fire are seeking to build a 30-acre practice facility on the Near West Side, with the soccer team entering discussions with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Housing Authority ]

The Fire will finance the $80 million dollar facility and provide an additional $8 million toward the “rehabilitation and preservation of nearby CHA housing and the creation of indoor and outdoor community spaces.” The lease is expected to generate around $40 million in revenue for CHA over the next 40 years, money which will go toward existing CHA housing efforts such as those at ABLA Brooks Homes, Loomis Courts, and Williams Jones, according to the news release.

“Being a part of and giving back to Chicago is at the heart of the Chicago Fire Football Club ethos, and we are excited to put down roots on the Near West Side in the Roosevelt Square community,” Joe Mansueto, Chicago Fire owner and chairman, said in the news release.

CHA and developer Related Midwest are in the process of building a $172 million mixed-income housing complex that will include 222 new homes and 184 renovated apartments in Roosevelt Square, according to the city’s news release

“We know that all residents — including those who use housing subsidies — benefit from mixed-use, mixed-income communities with access to quality public schools, outdoor recreation, jobs and career opportunities, health care, and more,” Chicago Housing Authority CEO Tracey Scott said in the news release. “This new partnership with the Chicago Fire will secure substantial funds to improve aging public housing at ABLA Brooks and Loomis Courts and create long-term employment opportunities for CHA residents.”

Aldermen including Byron Sigcho-Lopez — who represents the 25th Ward which included the area of the former ABLA Homes until new ward boundaries went into effect in May — have opposed the use of this land for the Fire’s new facility, with Sigcho-Lopez calling for an investigation by the board of ethics in an interview with the Tribune.

“I have heard from residents … The main concern that I saw was the lack of community engagement to discuss this,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “This is being rushed without the due process” by the outgoing administration.

The Coalition to Protect Chicago Housing Authority Land protested against the project as recently as Wednesday in front of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development offices downtown. Legal aid groups such as the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights helped write a letter to the city’s Plan Commission in September opposing the development on behalf of members of the coalition.

“In this proposal, land that is promised for desperately needed affordable housing to predominantly serve the needs of Black families will be given to a billionaire with negligible benefits for the thousands of families of color seeking to live in Chicago’s opportunity areas,” the letter states.

On Monday, Matthew Aguilar, a CHA spokesperson, pointed to a HUD letter of support of the project. He also pointed to a past statement from CHA, which said, “We have had significant public engagement around this project thus far and have received substantial support, including from CHA resident leadership.”

Don Washington, executive director of the Chicago Housing Initiative — whose organization is a part of the Coalition to Protect Chicago Housing Authority Land — is skeptical that the “mythical millions of dollars” that are supposed to be generated for CHA from the project will go toward housing people in Chicago.

“This is just more evidence that the city of Chicago and the federal government have abandoned the idea of housing poor people,” Washington told the Tribune on behalf of his organization. “People are on waiting lists 30-years long to get into (CHA housing). … This is nothing more than transforming Black and brown bodies into cash for rich upper-income people.”

Chicago Tribune’s Alice Yin and Greg Pratt contributed.