Bridgeport Bears? Chicago firm releases plans for glitzy new domed stadium at Sox park site
A Chicago architectural firm on Wednesday released renderings of a plan that would put the Bears in a new domed stadium at the Rate Field site — and potentially help bolster a plan for the Chicago White Sox to move to the South Loop.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill posted the renderings to their Instagram page Wednesday, saying the plan would create a new home for the Bears with a mixed-use district that would bring together housing, entertainment, hospitality, parks and public recreation. The firm noted the transportation infrastructure already is in place at the site in Armour Square, adjacent to the Bridgeport neighborhood, with access to the CTA, Metra and Dan Ryan Expressway.
Renderings of the plan being distributed to stakeholders say the stadium and campus is "presented by Sterling Bay." But Sterling Bay CEO Andy Gloor in a text message told the Chicago Sun-Times the plan is a Skidmore "work product" and said Sterling Bay is "not driving this deal although we love the idea of keeping the Bears in Chicago."
Even so, a spokesperson from Sterling Bay called the plan "a real viable solution to keeping the Bears in Chicago."
“We have also identified a large amount of publicly owned land surrounding the site that could transform the stadium into a district with more affordable and market-rate housing, civic amenities and new and improved pedestrian bridges to bring lasting vitality to the surrounding neighborhoods,” the architectural firm said.
Sources said the plan would include moving Wentworth Gardens, a nearby CHA housing development, which would certainly meet some resistance.
But a Bears stadium at the site, which is owned by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, could mean the team could avoid paying property taxes, a major selling point. There’s also the built-in infrastructure, with the potential for federal transportation funds as well.
All of the chatter comes as Canal Edge LLC — a company owned by White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia — released plans in September for a mixed-use development called the Railyards, which would move the Chicago White Sox to the South Loop. The baseball stadium would sit alongside the Chicago River on a site stretching from Roosevelt Road on the north to 18th Street on the south, bordered by the the river on the east and Canal Street to the west.
But putting the stadium at that riverfront location requires moving an Amtrak maintenance yard, and the move came hand-in-hand with Ishbia’s companies helping to finance moving the Amtrak facility to Bridgeport.
That plan has met some major community resistance because Amtrak initially had received more than $600 million and a “categorical exclusion” from the federal government for the project, which allowed it to move forward without a full environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement “unless there are extraordinary circumstances.”
However, the Federal Railroad Administration this week said that proposed Amtrak maintenance facility in Bridgeport would undergo a federal environmental review after that community pushback.
Mayor Brandon Johnson's office on Wednesday offered few details, saying in a statement to the Sun-Times that “the Mayor knows that Chicago is and should remain the home of the Bears and will continue to work with stakeholders across the region to do so.”
Eleventh Ward Ald. Nicole Lee said she is intrigued by the possibility of the Bears replacing the Sox at the site that now includes Rate Field, even though there are more far more questions than answers about the eleventh-hour plan. Lee and Cook County Commissioner John Daley have been embroiled in the battle with Amtrak and Ishbia to prevent the Sox from leaving Rate Field for the South Loop. That plan also entails the construction of the Amtrak maintenance site.
“I’m absolutely interested in conversations about what’s possible on this land — especially because the Sox haven’t necessarily talked to us about what it would take for them to stay,” Lee said Wednesday.
“The plans are — they’re real pretty pictures. But there’s still a lot we need to have extensive conversations about.”
Rate Field was built by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and bankrolled by an increase in the hotel tax. Another $50 million in outstanding stadium authority bonds were used to fund a renovation of the Sox stadium and won’t be retired until 2029, when the Sox lease expires.
Lee said she is “glad that people are looking at the ISFA property as something that has great potential, which is something that we’ve been saying for a long time.”
It’s not the first time a Chicago developer and its handpicked stadium architect has showcased dazzling stadium renderings.
“Pretty pictures” have accompanied plans to build a Bears stadium at the site that once housed Michael Reese Hospital, as well as the plan once championed by Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf to build a new Sox stadium at the South Loop parcel known as The 78, across the river from the latest proposed Sox stadium. The 78 also is where the Chicago Fire’s billionaire owner, Joe Mansueto, is financing his own $750 million soccer stadium with help from $425 million in taxpayer-funded infrastructure improvements.
Both of those earlier stadium plans have, so far, gone nowhere.
Asked whether she believes the plan to build a Bears stadium near Bridgeport is real, or more like a Hail Mary pass, Lee answered: “I don’t know. I have not had any conversations with the Bears at all about a potential move to our area.”
“It’s interesting the timing of everything right now knowing that Sterling Bay is also working with the Canal Edge folks as well with regards to the rail yards,” the company owned by Ishbia.
Lee said she looks forward to talking to stadium developers about “what’s possible on 35th Street. …That’s gonna need to involve the state because the state owns all of that property.”
“Different here than with the Amtrak maintenance facility, this land is in a planned development, and it would be subject to all of the city’s planned development requirements. So we’re a long way off,” Lee said. “The timing is interesting, and the players are interesting.”
Lee said she has long found it strange that the Bears stadium search has dominated the public conversation and political debate even though the team’s lease at Soldier Field does not expire until 2033.
“The fact that the Sox lease is coming due sooner was a little frustrating,” she said. “I’m happy that there’s at least some other conversations going on about what the future of all of these teams is.”
If the Skidmore plan ever does take off, Lee said, “They’re gonna be building a whole complex, and there are some things that would need to come down” and be demolished. She refused to reveal specifics. “That is why this is so far away from being real,” she said.
Gov. JB Pritzker has been driving the Bears talks as of late, meeting again last month with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose repeated visits to Illinois might suggest the league’s not thrilled at the prospect of the Bears breaking ground on a dome in Hammond, Indiana.
Indiana lawmakers already have approved a stadium package to lure the Bears, even as the Bears hoped the Illinois General Assembly would provide some help for the team to build a stadium at the former site of Arlington International Racecourse.
Pritzker has supported the broader concept of allowing the Bears to negotiate a discounted payment in lieu of taxes, known as PILOT, with local governments. The Illinois House passed such a bill this spring, earning critical support from Chicago Democrats because it would’ve shared proceeds with homeowners as property tax rebates — but those returns were deemed “negligible.”
In the Illinois General Assembly, sources familiar with the negotiations say the conversation has shifted toward the stadium authority model. That would mean no tax bill for the Bears — and it would keep the door open to Chicago, providing vital cover for city legislators loath to pave the team’s path to Arlington Heights.
The Bears declined to comment, and the White Sox did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Contributing: Sports reporter Pat Finley
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