Mayor Brandon Johnson is asking Chicago to make a massive bet on The 78. On Wednesday, his administration put forward a plan to free up roughly $425 million in tax-increment financing to cover roads, riverfront work and a new underground parking platform that would serve Related Midwest’s 62-acre megaproject and the Chicago Fire’s planned stadium. City officials frame it as essential groundwork near Roosevelt Road and Clark Street before any tall buildings or plazas can rise. The move drops Chicago right back into a familiar fight: how much public money should prep private land for development?
What the proposal would pay for
Johnson’s team and developer Related Midwest have pitched the package as a way to “unlock” a long-dormant site, according to Crain's Chicago Business. The dollar breakdown, as detailed by the Chicago Sun-Times, reads like a shopping list for a new neighborhood: about $199 million for public structures, plazas and open space; $104 million for road work along LaSalle and 13th through 15th Streets; $11 million for Clark Street improvements; $30 million for river-wall work; $8 million for Roosevelt Road; and $34 million for Metra upgrades.
The Sun-Times also reports that the plan includes building an underground parking garage with roughly 1,200 spaces. City planners told reporters that the garage would be owned and operated by the city, with a management agreement expected to spell out how game-day revenue is shared.
Private stadium, public works
The stadium itself is billed as a private project. Chicago Fire owner Joe Mansueto plans to finance the venue, which the club has pegged at about $650 million with roughly 22,000 seats, according to a team statement published via Chicago Fire FC. Local coverage around the project’s groundbreaking has sometimes cited a higher total, about $750 million, as construction moved into the field phase. City officials say the $425 million TIF request is targeted at site prep and public infrastructure rather than the stadium construction itself.
Neighbors raise red flags
Not everyone is sold on pouring a large TIF subsidy into a high-density private development, especially with transit plans scaled back and no dedicated CTA station in the current design, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “I feel like we’re putting seed money as taxpayers into something that is not fully revealed to us,” Marj Halperin of One Community Near South told the paper.
City Hall at least appears ready to hear neighbors out. Finance Committee Chair Pat Dowell has scheduled a public meeting this week to take comment on the mayor’s request, according to the Sun-Times.
What comes next
The TIF request now heads to the City Council’s Finance Committee and then the full council, and would require amending the existing redevelopment plan that governs The 78’s district, Crain's Chicago Business reports. In practical terms, tax-increment financing captures future growth in property taxes inside a district and uses that money to pay for infrastructure today.
Critics argue that setup can pull tax dollars away from schools and other services, a tradeoff spelled out in a recent primer from The Civic Federation. The group notes that while TIF can jump-start redevelopment, it can also push tax rates higher for residents outside the district during the life of the TIF.
Whether $425 million in public help is enough to turn The 78 from an empty rail yard into a walkable riverfront neighborhood is now a very public question. Over the coming hearings, expect the argument over this one stadium deal to double as a broader fight about how Chicago uses TIF, and who ultimately pays for the city’s biggest dreams.
