With Tuesday’s decision, City Hall kept a trio of casino bids in the running - for now: Bally’s proposal for a riverfront site straddling West Chicago Avenue that would include the Chicago Tribune printing plant Rivers Casino’s plan to put gaming within “The 78,” an already-planned development on the South Branch of the river south of Roosevelt Road and Hard Rock’s stab at building a casino as part of One Central, a mixed-use development proposed above the Metra tracks near Soldier Field at 18th Street. That’s because the city now has to select the proposal with the right location and proper built amenities that can actually deliver the cascade of public revenue needed to substantially help solve the pension crisis.Īnd the winning bid has to be up and running as quickly as possible and - we feel strongly about this - without the hidden, “Oops, we forgot to tell you,” taxpayer costs that follow too many big-scale projects in this town, from the legendary overruns at Millennium Park to the nearly $200 million in street and infrastructure work that’s a part of the Obama Presidential Center construction.Ĭhicago being Chicago and all, those are tall orders to correctly fill. But we’re also at a point where things can get tricky.
