Sixteen teenagers, ages 13 to 19, were arrested Friday night at the vacant Congress Theater in Logan Square, nearly a week after police shut down an unsanctioned rave that drew a crowd of young people to the shuttered landmark. Officers responded to a trespassing call around 8:15 p.m. at the theater on the 2100 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, and several people tried to flee when officers entered the building.
All sixteen teens were charged with a single misdemeanor count of criminal trespassing, according to police, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. Two of the teens were also cited for having pellet guns, while four others were charged with reckless conduct. Under Illinois law, criminal trespass to real property is a Class B misdemeanor, carrying penalties of up to 180 days in jail and fines of up to $1,500, according to the Illinois General Assembly.
A Week After the Viral Rave
The Friday night arrests came a week after a local DJ held an illegal rave at the same building on August 8, an event that drew several young people before police were called in to shut it down. No one was arrested that night, per the Sun-Times account, but the party caused significant damage to the building and required a police response that pulled resources away from other matters, the outlet reported.
1st Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata condemned the earlier rave, warning that the break-in, the property damage, and the necessary clean-up threaten to slow the renovation timeline for the developer and the city, according to Block Club Chicago. The unsanctioned party gained widespread attention on social media before officers arrived to disperse the crowd.
A Landmark Waiting on an $88 Million Rebirth
The Congress Theater has sat vacant since 2013, when the city ordered it closed following dozens of safety and building code violations, and the Chicago Liquor Control Commission revoked its liquor license the following month after years of resident complaints over crowd management, per The Forum. Built in 1926 by architectural firm Fridstein & Co. as an ornate movie palace, the theater was designated a Chicago Landmark in July 2002 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in January 2017, according to the City of Chicago.
Developers plan to rehabilitate the Congress Theater and turn it back into an entertainment venue, adding retail, office, and residential space to the complex. The federal government provided a $25.2 million loan for the renovation, and the city has also supplied grants toward the project, as Hoodline reported in its earlier coverage of the loan deal. That full redevelopment is budgeted at roughly $88 million, covering the restoration of the 3,500-seat main venue along with 13,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, 23,000 square feet of nonprofit office space, and 16 residential units, 14 of them designated as affordable housing.
Beyond the federal loan, Chicago's City Council approved $27 million in Tax Increment Financing assistance in July 2023 along with a three-year extension of the Fullerton/Milwaukee TIF district to help fund the overhaul, according to the City of Chicago. Real estate firm Baum Revision took over as developer after a previous developer's $65 million rehab plan stalled, with live entertainment company AEG Presents slated to operate the restored venue.
Old Building, Old Problems
The rave damage has increased the cost of the theater's rehabilitation, according to the Sun-Times, adding a fresh complication to a project that has already required years of financing maneuvers to get off the ground. The venue's history with youth safety issues predates this month's incidents by more than a decade: in early 2012, three teenagers were charged in connection with the New Year's Eve 2011 sexual assault of an 18-year-old woman outside the theater after she was turned away from an electronic dance music concert, according to CBS News.
Before its 2013 closure, the Congress Theater held a prominent place in Chicago's music scene, serving as the original indoor host venue when Riot Fest launched in 2005 and hosting acts including Panic! at the Disco, Paramore, and ZZ Top for live album recordings, per Forbes. Whether the recent break-ins and resulting damage will ultimately delay the project's completion timeline remains an open question as the developer and city work to keep the restoration on schedule.
