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00:00Well yesterday the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families got together for a press
00:03conference to unveil a proposal that would remake the near west side. It's a
00:09huge project. It's ambitious. It's expensive. It's called the 1901 project
00:15and it's going to take about a decade and seven billion dollars to complete.
00:21Seven billion dollars of development in the city. Danny Wirtz and Michael
00:26Reinsdorf were the front and center spokespeople for this and it's going to
00:32be a new neighborhood and the United Center is going to be the anchor. It's
00:36exciting and it's ambitious. Okay and I understand that and I read some of the
00:41coverage of it and I'm fascinated by the idea of taking all the parking lots and
00:47using they've been apparently buying up some lots too and then building like
00:52it's my understanding you'd have like a green area where underneath it is like a
00:57multiple kind of a lot. Here's what I don't get. Where does the seven billion
01:03come from? Who's putting the seven billion into it because it's not they're
01:07not asking the government for that money right? So is it private investors? Well it's
01:14a privately financed music hall that's included as part of this project which I
01:19think that answers part of the question but over ten years the seven
01:23billion dollars it seems as if it was presented there wasn't a quest to seek
01:29public funding. It wasn't like that. It seemed like a lot of private investment
01:33business investment development in a part of I think in a part of the
01:39city where you trust that there's going to be that anchor already. See I think
01:44the difference with this and I don't want to pretend to be an expert on
01:46business development in the city. So the sports stadium is already there. It's not
01:51like the 78 where they're building it to be there. And Madison Avenue on the way
01:54out is already being built up and there are already kind of if you just drive
02:00down the street there are already restaurants, bars. West Loop. It's gotten a
02:04lot nicer than it was in the last 20 years. No question about it. This I think is
02:09probably you can read the story you talk to the people surrounding it it's a
02:14continuation of that development or just a need to understand you need to
02:19reinvest in this area because you do already have the anchor tenant if you
02:25will. The United Center is there and doing quite well. So now you build
02:30around it and now it's very ambitious but it sounds like they want to break
02:36ground as early as the first of the year. The sense would be that they will break
02:40ground on this project based on what we learned yesterday based on the
02:45projections they will break ground on this project before the Bears put a
02:48shovel in the dirt wherever they're gonna build. I'm just saying that's
02:54remarkable. But the difference is this is seven billion dollars but they're
02:59not asking for two point five but whatever it is. Okay so I Sierra
03:05Boatwright is the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and
03:09Development and I apologize if I mispronounced her first name is C-I-E-R-E
03:13Boatwright. She's quoted in the Tribune stories saying this there has been no
03:17request for financial assistance and from a land-use perspective this is an
03:22exciting opportunity to reverse decades of parking lot expansion and restore
03:26the traditional neighborhood development pattern. So that doesn't sound like a
03:30quest for public funds. This isn't going in look having your hands out and saying
03:35help us do this. It sounds like it's we're going to do this. Yeah just get out
03:40of our way. Allow us to you know do it right do it do it efficiently and you
03:47know we're gonna start pretty soon. So this is something I didn't see coming
03:51this soon. I heard her talks about it but I didn't think that they would be ready
03:55to unveil a plan like this. Was there talk at one point that Sox build there? I
04:00mean wasn't there kind of that suggestion? I think there was maybe it
04:07was one of the sites rumblings okay maybe what rumblings I you know when you
04:11hear the Sox chatter it's hard to remember exactly where all of the
04:15different areas that they were rumored to be going. Yeah Nashville the South
04:19Loop. There's a disconnect here for me which is the Reinsdorf family. I get
04:25it. They own the building with the Wurtz's and and and the the United
04:30Center. I understand all that but why why would you want to build up in Chicago if
04:37you want to get your baseball team to Nashville? See what I'm saying? And I'm not
04:40saying that's what they want but there's been a long suspicion that the Sox are
04:45losing on purpose in order to lose their fan base in order to take away from
04:51those that would not want them to leave. I don't personally buy that. Hasn't Jerry
04:54said that if he goes that you know Michael's been told to sell the team?
05:00It's almost like you think written into the will perhaps that has been
05:04speculated. But does that mean sell the team and have anybody who would leave
05:08town or does that mean sell the team and leave it in Chicago? I would think it would be a
05:11shame and I don't know that that's been you know determined and I think it's
05:16impossible to determine that right now. But I think is this related to the White
05:21Sox project in the South Loop? I don't believe so. But I will say I will add
05:25this you further and so I don't want to suggest that when I said they're not
05:28going seeking public assistance obviously that wasn't the lead. That
05:33wasn't like okay like the presentation at Soldier Field with Kevin Warren and
05:36the Bears like we're gonna donate this then we're gonna ask for this and all of
05:40a sudden it's like two billion dollars in public subsidies that you need. Now this
05:43could include Mully. Terry Savarese was saying that this could include the
05:48possibility of tapping into the neighboring tax increment financing
05:53district a TIF district which is often the case which is a workaround right? Of
05:58course. And that could be part of this project moving forward. I think it would
06:02be naive to expect it not to be but there does seem to be a high level of
06:06investment privately that seems to be part of this as well. But whenever you
06:10hear of some massive spending project that we're gonna start the shovels we're
06:15getting going on you're always just wondering well what is it that you're
06:20after. You can't help it and it's not and the devil's in the details a natural
06:24cynic. Yeah definitely it's but I think we're in Chicago you we have a right to
06:28be cynical it's inherent that there's some skepticism when there's public
06:32building projects or something that involves you know yes. Listen it'd be
06:37great to take advantage of there's you know there's some there's been some
06:43building on the west side there's been the whole restaurant district of kind of
06:49heading west there are already like really good restaurants neighborhoods
06:56there there are there's a lot that you could kind of leak link together with
07:03this project going out in that in that fashion. I think there's a lot to like
07:10about all of it. The first phase would include a 796 million dollar investment
07:16that's the first phase it would include the music hall and the new parks and
07:19this is the important part they wanted to stress I felt like 4,000 construction
07:24jobs 1,900 permanent jobs created as a result of this project. That's that's
07:31where they're looking to get people on board with this is a good idea. That
07:36always helps when you're creating jobs and you're creating development and
07:39there will be Kevin Warren there will be cranes I imagine there will be cranes.
07:45Yeah no I mean listen I'm all for it I you know I love that kind of stuff I
07:49love this city and I want the city to keep building up but I also you know I
07:54just wonder what what does it really mean. You want to be you want to be
07:58responsible but but the United Center is a proven draw it is an anchor tenant in
08:04every sense of the word that's what they envision the White Sox ballpark being in
08:09the 78 with related Midwest involved there yeah and so this is a surer thing
08:17than that would be I suppose you could say that right because you're dealing
08:22with two franchises who are in front of us and the building is already
08:27there. Right and there and there is you know an opportunity there's a lot of
08:32parking around there that if you are if you're creating a like a subterranean
08:37parking lot and making it a green area on the top of that that sounds very nice
08:42it does it sounds wonderful. The housing that's gonna include up to 5,000 new
08:48units a mixture of rentals and condos and multiple different phases of the
08:52project yeah so there's a lot of details that are yet to be released there's just
08:57a lot of excitement surrounding the initial unveiling yesterday and it's
09:02ambitious seven billion dollars over the next ten years. It's just as you say I
09:07mean that is like the third major area that we're talking about the lakefront
09:13the 78 and now the 1901 and then meanwhile what are you doing with
09:20Michael Reese Hospital how are you gonna kind of draw in the Browns the
09:25Bronzeville area like there there are there's a lot of ambition for a lot of
09:30projects and it would be great if you could see them come to fruition and just
09:35keep it going take the momentum of that and build our world-class city back up
09:41to world-class standards. Yeah the idealist and everybody would like to see
09:45all right well have the Bears build the dome on the lakefront okay have the
09:49White Sox build the stadium and this patch of land called the 78 and oh by
09:53the way redevelop the area the near west side that's great surrounding the United
09:58Center and then we're all be good in the next ten years or so. That sounds
10:01magnificent. Okay I just don't know how we're paying for that I don't know how
10:04we're doing that. It's really ambitious so it's fun to consider and this is
10:09probably of the three projects that we mentioned this one probably has the the
10:14best chance of breaking ground the soonest. Yeah and you know when I hear a
10:20music hall like I kind of travel back to the 1940s in a way don't you I mean it's
10:28just a music hall sounds great. It does sound great I'm kind of very curious
10:31about that. Is it going to be a big band playing in the music hall? Is that where
10:35the country smoke will be from now on? I don't know, it's a good question.