The Chicago Bears are reconsidering the former Michael Reese Hospital site as a potential location for a new stadium, a source said, but the team remains focused on the lakefront.
The team is open to any alternative that would work, but officials have said previously that the former hospital site was unworkable because it’s next to Metra train tracks that pose a security risk.
The 49-acre site is long and skinny, sandwiched between the tracks and Lake Shore Drive on the east, apartments on the west, 31st Street on the south and the Stevenson Expressway to the north.
The advantage of the site is that it’s mostly open land, not far from the Loop and the lake, and next to McCormick Place Convention Center. It would also avoid a legal fight over the Bears’ proposal to build a $3.2 billion roofed stadium on the lake to replace the team’s current home in Soldier Field.
Bears President Kevin Warren previously had told the Tribune that the team had looked at ten sites and ruled out the others, settling on the lakefront site.
The team also spent $197 million to buy the former Arlington International Racecourse and proposed building a stadium there as part of a mixed-use development, before turning instead back downtown.
The Bears have offered to put up $2.3 billion in private money for the lakefront site. They’re asking for $900 million in public money, plus up to $1.5 billion in infrastructure costs like new roadwork.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson supports the lakefront proposal. But Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state legislative leaders have stonewalled the idea, saying there is no appetite for public subsidies of the stadium.
After news of the Michael Reese site being reconsidered broke Tuesday in Crain’s Chicago Business, the governor’s office issued a statement: “The Governor’s stance on the stadium issue remains unchanged regardless of possible locations—he is not in favor of public funds for private stadiums.”
