Full: United Center announces MULTI-BILLION dollar development in Chicago’s West Side

The United Center revealed the ambitious $7 billion '1901 Project,' aimed at revitalizing Chicago's West Side. This landmark investment will include a new 6,000-seat music hall, retail spaces, housing, and expansive community green areas, generating 63,000 construction jobs and 13,000 permanent positions, according to the announcement.
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[@willyjoerockhead]

parking lots are ugly

[@JHook2dafullest]

No they're not...

[@TheNightcawler13]

So much for the Sox and Bears stadium

[@Gw19838]

What does it have to do with the Bears? This is a private investment. I get the Sox since they are owned by the same people.

[@stepheneggert9474]

Love the vision from both families.. involved..I wish the wirtz family would return the Barton organ console..back to the U.C. Put it on Display..! Chicago stadium History..it to see this project happen.

[@georgeblackwell2306]

Makes sense, finally..

[@garysarpy835]

So, after leaving the area desolate and barren for 30 years, with poverty and underserved communities surrounding, .. "we're gonna gentrify. " And call it "giving back.... Bravo.

[@gamingrest.1426]

63,000 jobs….. 😮how about you apply

[@ronaldcook3840]

I agree with you 10,000 percent. This is something that was in the works for years. The greed comes to no end.

[@guidanceguilds345]

Why didn't the people come together and invest?? West side has been waiting for decades

[@noble6882]

​@@guidanceguilds345poor people literally have nothing to invest. Even middle-class people don't have extra money these days. Just the rich

[@noble6882]

Is this not better than leaving the area desolate and barren?

[@kris8263]

Is the parking gonna go underneath?

[@keyonmichaels8686]

Most likely

[@miles5600]

or no parking at all, a lot of urban stadiums around the world in cities don't have a parking lot since these people walk, take transit and bike to the stadium.

[@kris8263]

@@miles5600 I'm sure but this is US many people drive, some Uber, those who ride a bus can't afford a ticket to the stadium.

[@miles5600]

@@kris8263 that can change. 65 precent of dutch people also drive everyday. Invest into good public transportation and even the rich people will use it cause of the convience.

[@kris8263]

@@miles5600 I get your point but you don't understand American reality. It is just easier to drive. People barely walk over here.

[@ThisWeekWithChevette]

Looks nice!

[@MikeDrew312]

Giant L 😂 fix the damn white sox. Cheap skate Jerry

[@GAURAV25855ify]

About time

[@milwaukeeduke414]

Need to replace the dump and the owner... #GoBucks

[@MikeDrew312]

❤

[@ScoobieSwisher7413]

Is he on a boat?

[@bagolbones]

yes

[@supremeintel]

revitalizing = gentrifying

[@malnorfleet4925]

So?

[@supremeintel]

@@malnorfleet4925 We don't have to get into it but you're right it's part of the "game"

[@aye54]

Put down the fucking iPad and stop moving.

[@ThisWeekWithChevette]

😮

[@berdeauxlaveau6515]

SO GENTRIFICATION. GREAT

[@addisonbaker8211]

Turning parking lots into a neighbourhood isn't gentrification.

[@noble6882]

​@@addisonbaker8211sounds like they're trying to turn it into a giant entertainment complex. I wouldn't call that building a neighborhood

[@berdeauxlaveau6515]

@@addisonbaker8211 there’s two parking lots

[@MikeDrew312]

How you think Pilsen and Chinatown feeling lol

[@berdeauxlaveau6515]

@@MikeDrew312 fr taxes are insane.

[@chrisfrantzis4351]

Building and rebuilding sports stadiums is clearly the top priority need for the citizens of Chicago. I love our billionaire owners so much.

[@kavid8120]

Building a stadium is easier than trying to get ppl out of poverty and teaching them to not join gangs. This has a success rate of 100% whereas those 2 other things I mentioned are below 60% success rate. Cry all you want but ppl are allowed to build what they want. If you don’t like it go live somewhere in Alaska

[@guidanceguilds345]

I don't know people would rather see the west side stay the way it is for eternity, if your so worried about "gentrification" gather your people and start investing!

[@addisonbaker8211]

I don't understand what you want to happen here. *This isn't being paid for by the city*. Do you want the stadium owners to instead use their money to create city social programs? That would be great but you know that's not how private money works. It's this development or the money just... stays in some vault somewhere. And, by dint of driving significant investment, development, and economic activity, increasing the housing supply, and just making a big destination a lot of Chicagoans visit significantly nicer, this will slightly improve the general quality of life in the city while increasing city tax revenue. So it's just a win win - the billionaire owners get to make their money and the city gets to make it a little bit nicer for its inhabitants.

[@noble6882]

​​@@addisonbaker8211​​I'm no socioeconomic expert. But this seems like the best description I've seen of what's going to happen here. It'll at least make the west side a little bit more of a destination which is one of the few things that can drive big investment in the neighborhood. Sounds like a win-win to me

[@malnorfleet4925]

Why should they invest in you? What did yall invest in the west side?

[@Rick-C-117]

Lots of fantastic speeches. Most of them can read from an iPad or sheet of paper. Good job.

[@californiamade5608]

Entertainment capital of the world 😂😂 yea no

[@fnihp30]

Got to have vision….

[@mjzalov]

What I don't understand, if they are planning on developing on existing parking lots, where are people going to park for the games?

[@mickanvonfootscraymarket5520]

Everyone can take public transit

[@mickanvonfootscraymarket5520]

Or walk

[@huaqingzhu5928]

Event parking is the most inefficient way to get fans to the arena. The dense neighborhood near Wrigley field is way better than those depressing parking lots around United Center. People can take trains, buses, even walk or bike, drink whatever they want without worrying about DUI

[@addisonbaker8211]

Chicago knows better than pretty much any city in the union that a major sports arena, especially one in close proximity to a metro station, does not need to sit in a sea of parking, and can instead sit in a dense neighbourhood full of residences and businesses, all generating tax revenue for the city. If you don't think the stadium will function without the ocean of parking, simply look at Wrigley.

[@noble6882]

​@@huaqingzhu5928I'm assuming they're going to try and make the neighborhood a lot safer one way or another if they want to convince people to walk to the UC cause right now that's the ghetto

[@louiss.7765]

Ugly. Poor design. Nothing spectacular.

[@JHook2dafullest]

and no one will care about it after a few years anyways lol

[@techi9]

Got to put the migrants somewhere

[@techi9]

@@A-Wesker-5 most migrants are being quietly funneled to the south and west sides of chicago where there is already a lack of housing. If reinsdorf wants backing for his sox stadium...gotta give to get. Not to mention Reinsdorf and Wirtz would be getting huge tax breaks from this.

[@noble6882]

So where are you saying they're going to put them? In this new housing?

[@addisonbaker8211]

​@@techi9 Is this true? I'm not saying this is unbelievable, it honestly sounds like something Chicago would do, I just find it personally hard to believe given that I live directly across the street from a building that was converted into a very large migrant shelter and I'm very much in the north. ...also, it's not the south and west where there is a lack of housing; it's literally everywhere. Not just in Chicago, but in the nation. We're in a massive housing crisis, and Chicago is, compared to the rest of the nation, actually being hit relatively lightly.

[@addisonbaker8211]

@@techi9 And as to the tax breaks, they could not possibly offset the incredible amount of tax revenue generated by massive developments of this kind. I'm not saying I like giving tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, but if ever there was a project where the tax breaks given to its wealthy owners was not that harmful, it would be one that created thousands upon thousands of jobs, businesses, and homes, which will all be taxed now and decades after the developers' tax breaks expire. If each of the 13,000 permanent jobs created generates only $1000 in tax for the city, that will still be $13,000,000 in direct revenue, even disregarding the massive jump in taxable property value when you turn a parking lot into a residential building with a business on the first floor; this itself also leaves out the knock-on economic effects of the generation of extra jobs and creation of new housing units. In short, while tax breaks are bad, in this specific instance the economic benefits of the project itself will far outweigh any tax breaks.

[@techi9]

@@addisonbaker8211 bullshit