Five sites considered for possible casino locations in Chicago

City officials stressed that the casino won’t necessarily wind up at one of the five spots, which they characterized as test sites, but the choices suggest that Lightfoot seeks to fulfill her campaign promise to direct growth to the city’s struggling areas.

The five are a parcel near the Harborside golf course at 111th Street and the Bishop Ford Freeway; the former Michael Reese Hospital site at 31st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue; a site near Guaranteed Rate Field at Pershing Road and State Street; the former U.S. Steel parcel, known as South Works, between 79th and 91st streets along South Lake Shore Drive; and the lone West Side site, at Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue.

Notably absent from the list were downtown sites, such as the McCormick Place Lakeside Center and Navy Pier, which have been suggested as possible casino locations. Real estate experts argued that putting the casino downtown would maximize revenue and create the most jobs.

During her campaign, Lightfoot stressed the need for economic development on the South and West sides. She has touted the casino, along with related restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues, as a way to advance that goal and produce new revenue streams for the city.

But the casino will be a privately owned facility and the mayor could have to persuade its owner, who will likely have a major say in the facility’s location, that patrons won’t be scared off by the gun violence plaguing some neighborhoods.

“While a Chicago casino has been talked about for more than 30 years, today we are moving forward to ensure the new casino is viable for Chicago and all of its communities,” Lightfoot said in a statement.

At the end of its spring session, the Illinois General Assembly authorized an expansion of casino gambling to Chicago, a step the city had long sought. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the law, part of massive expansion of gambling in the state, in late June.

Four of the five sites to be evaluated are publicly owned, and all have been discussed previously as potential casino sites, said Samir Mayekar, deputy mayor of neighborhood development. All are close to expressways or major highways.

Here are more details about the sites:

⋅The Harborside site is near the Far South Side’s Pullman neighborhood, once the location of the Pullman railroad car manufacturing empire, and sits east of the Bishop Ford Freeway. The 63-acre site, owned by the Illinois International Port District, is undeveloped land near the Harborside International Golf Center at 11001 S. Doty Ave. East.

⋅ The Pershing and State site is four blocks south of Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the White Sox, and across the Dan Ryan Expressway from the ballpark. The 19-acre site, owned by the Chicago Housing Authority, is part of what was once a long stretch of public housing complexes, including Stateway Gardens and the Robert Taylor Homes, along the expressway.

⋅ The West Side site, a few blocks south of the Eisenhower Expressway, is 23 acres of industrial land along Kostner north of Roosevelt. The city-owned property was once home to a Copenhagen snuff plant. It was previously suggested as a site for the Obama Presidential Center, which instead went to Jackson Park.

⋅ The former Michael Reese site, just west of South Lake Shore Drive, is part of a larger proposed mixed-use development, called the Burnham Lakefront, that a group of developers led by Farpoint Development and Draper and Kramer envisions. The development venture is in the process of buying the site from the city, but the sale has not been finalized. The developers also must secure zoning approval from the city.

⋅ The largest site is the 440-acre South Works on the south lakefront. It is the only privately owned site among the five included in the feasibility study. U.S. Steel, which once operated a massive steel plant on the property, has been trying to find a buyer to redevelop the site in recent years. Most recently, Irish firm Emerald Living drew up a development that would have included as many as 20,000 homes on the site. But the developer walked away from a deal to buy the site in May 2018 because of concerns about soil contamination.