As we mount 2022, we should pay attention to the business of a casino coming to the city.
Surely it will be a game-changer – an economic benefit to Chicago and our residents, a tourist attraction, and a haven for job creation for the hospitality industry from cooks to dealers to servers. A Chicago casino will provide a strong tax base that the city desperately needs for the pension plans of city workers, including police and firefighters. What neighborhood will receive a Chicago casino? Where is the best place? These are questions that weigh a decision.
A Chicago casino is the brilliant achievement of Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She has accomplished what previous administrations could not and did not. Five proposals were submitted, and the timeline for selection for the winning bidder is early 2022. Hopefully, the citizens of Chicago will have an opportunity to review the bidder’s presentations. A temporary casino can open as soon as the final months of 2023 or early 2024. The new permanent casino facility is scheduled to open a few years later.
All five of the bids were presented on December 16 at the University of Illinois to a limited, in-person audience due to COVID restrictions. It was live-streamed to the public. Yet, more public meetings should occur.
The bids included one from Hard Rock and two from Chicagoan Neil Blum’s Rush Street Gaming. Bally’s submitted two proposals, one at the McCormick Place Truck Marshalling Yard and another at the old Tribune printing plant near Halsted Street and Chicago Avenue. It matters where the casinos are placed. Whereas the casinos will change the city, with new local and international visitors, it will also be a drastic change to a community. Location is important.
What happens if the casino is placed at McCormick Place Truck Marshalling Yard? All roads lead to this destination and it does not disturb the neighborhood. While the Marshalling site adjacent to the Michael Reese development was originally considered for a different use, that development has yet to put a shovel in the ground and the plans for the Marshalling Yard would not happen for years, if at all. The casino at this location would be accessible by all highways and the McCormick Place conventioneers would be within walking or trolley distance which makes it ideal. This destination would add greatly to the economy of the Southside. From the lakefront and McCormick Place to The Obama Library to the new plan proposed by Dr. Byron Brazier for Woodlawn, the Bally’s casino would help to further a true renaissance for Chicago with a real development plan.
Alderman Sophia King (4th Ward) has raised some objections about the Marshalling Yard site. She is concerned with issues of poverty, unemployment, crime, and property values in her ward in her ward. It seems that a significant business in this location would solve such problems.
The casino will bring thousands of great-paying jobs. For example, table game dealers start at $60,000, and cocktails waitresses and bartenders earn upward of $70,000. The gaming industry brings both a good salary and tips galore. Tha helps solve unemployment and poverty-type issues. Property values that are the likes of Prairie Shores and Lake Meadows complexes, and private homes will probably increase if not soar. Other alderpersons are biting at the bit to host the casino in their wards for precisely the same reasons that King has objections. If the casino goes in the Tribune printing plant area, Halsted Street will be reimagined. Significant road changes will change to accommodate traffic. And the river is right there and will provide a cozy placement. A casino in this spot provides revenue for the Northside of Chicago and changes the character of an industrial complex type neighborhood.
This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hopefully, a Chicago casino will also bring a new paradigm for dealing with minority enterprises. Bally’s has doubled down on minority investors who will have equity in the casino. They have proposed opportunities for minorities with contractual agreements at every level from building the facility to marketing, to restaurants to souvenirs to entertainment. Through their Community Rewards Program, Bally’s plans to drive traffic to local, neighborhood businesses that participate. Hopefully, community development, especially for the Southside, is a bonus for the casino’s riches.
The timeline calls for the mayor and City Council to make a selection, and then the Illinois Gaming Board has to approve. There is one more essential step, and that is the public having the opportunity to hear the proposals before the deal is done. The Request for Proposal document suggests that there will be a public presentation after the license is awarded. But isn’t that too late?
Disclaimer:
Bally is an advertiser with N’DIGO. I am friends with the Obama’s and Dr. Byron Brazier.
Hermene Hartman is the publisher of N’DIGO.
