
CHICAGO (WLS) — A $7 billion commercial, residential and entertainment district planned near the United Center easily cleared the first hurdle Thursday.
The Plan Commission unanimously approved the development proposal, which is now on the fast-track to full City Council approval.
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The 1901 Project, named for the address of the United Center, was praised Thursday as a development that will transform the West Side, turning parking lots into a flourishing mixed-use campus.
Big changes are coming to the area around the United Center that could make part of the West Side almost unrecognizable in the next 10 years or so.
The first phase would include a 6,000-seat theater-style music venue that could be built by 2028, along with a hotel with 233 rooms.
Both would be built on the parking lot to the south of the United Center.
There will also be a parking garage with an elevated park and playground just west of the UC.
RELATED: United Center owners pitch $7B investment called 1901 Project to revitalize neighborhood
Alderman Walter Burnett serves on the Plan Commission. The project is also in his ward.
“This is a huge project to give people hope that there’s life in the city of Chicago; there’s life on the West Side, and it’s going to drive more development on the West Side, said Burnett, who represents the 27th Ward.
The project, funded by the owners of the Bulls and Blackhawks, will include significant retail development along with open park space. There will also be up to 5,000 residential units, 20 percent of which will be affordable housing.
During the hearing, one downtown hospitality worker expressed frustration that the affordable housing won’t be built until later phases of the project. Read More at ABC 7 Chicago.
Among other new specifics revealed in the presentation, the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families laid out a rough timeline of how the wide-ranging project would come together.
The initial phase, which would include a 6,000-seat, theater-style music hall built on a parking lot next to the arena’s southwest corner, would tentatively be completed by 2028, according to the presentation.
That phase would also include two parking garages the United Center owners had previously revealed: one immediately west of the arena that would be topped by a 2.5-acre park and also include ground-floor retail, and another immediately south of the arena that would be part of a larger 233-room hotel.
That hotel room count has also increased from the 150 number the families shared when they publicly rolled out their plan over the summer.
A rendering of the entrance to a proposed 6,000-seat music hall southwest of the United Center.
A planning document showing the timing of proposed phases of development for the 1901 Project.
Phase two would be north of the arena between Madison Street and Washington Boulevard, where the plan calls for open space and a series of residential and retail properties that would be completed by 2031.
After that, the plan calls for more residential and commercial uses east of the arena — near a new CTA Pink Line station the teams hope the city will build — that would be done by 2034. Another series of residential buildings, including a residential high-rise that would dwarf buildings in the surrounding area, would be part of a development phase northeast of the arena completed by 2037.
The final phase, projected to be done by 2040, would feature smaller buildings near the arena on the west side of Damen Avenue.
The entire project calls for up to 9,463 residential units, 1,309 hotel rooms, commercial space and open space, according to the presentation.
The Plan Commission meeting comes after city officials signaled support for a new CTA Pink Line station by extending the life of the Central West tax-increment financing district that surrounds the arena just ahead of its scheduled expiration.
Money from that TIF district would likely play a key role in financing such a station, which the presentation shows at the intersection of the elevated tracks and Monroe Street. Read More At Crains Chicago.
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