Repeatedly calling it the engine that will serve as a transformational hub of a new Chicago neighborhood, Related Midwest and Rush Street Gaming Thursday evening described their vision for the Rivers 78 casino that would be located in the South Loop if city officials endorse it to the Illinois Gaming Board this summer.
The pitch for the $1.6 billion casino, part of an overall $7 billion development spanning a parcel of 62 acres, was the third and final presentation made to the public this week by operators vying for the coveted downtown casino license. Hard Rock and ONE Central offered the plan for a lakefront casino near Soldier Field Tuesday, and Bally’s presented its designs for a casino and hotel on-site at the Tribune Publishing Plant in River West Wednesday night.
The city is expected to further scrutinize the three proposals and negotiate with the operators over the next two to three months with the goal of presenting one operator for the Chicago City Council to approve and recommend to the gaming board. Mayor Lori Lightfoot narrowed the field from five proposals to three last month, eliminating one Bally’s proposal and one Rush Street Gaming proposal.
The city is projecting annual tax revenue of approximately $200 million from the downtown casino, with that money earmarked by Illinois state law to address funding shortfalls in Chicago’s fire and police pension plans. The state could also receive approximately $200 million annually in tax revenue, which would nearly equal the $248.7 million in taxes generated through all 11 of the state’s venues in 2021, from their $1.2 billion in gaming revenue.
A grand vision years in the making
The presentation at the Isadore and Sadie Dorin Forum on Roosevelt Road near the proposed South Loop site had a more crisp pace than those of both Hard Rock and Bally’s. Some of that can be attributed to Related President Curt Bailey and his team needing to fully articulate the large-scale concept of Rivers 78.
The proposal involves building a neighborhood from scratch that would include the casino and entertainment district on the north part; a 1,000-foot observation tower it has dubbed the “Eiffel Tower of Chicago”; a riverwalk area for live entertainment; 11 acres of new park lands; restaurants; an innovation district anchored by the Discovery Park Institute on the southern end; and housing, with a percentage to be built as affordable units.
“We’ve been working for the last six years designing a place that our kids can visit and be proud of, a place that we can all be proud of when you look back in 20 years and see what we’ve built,” Bailey said before checking off the city’s wish list from its RFP. “Those objectives call for something big, they call for something transformational.
“This is where we’re different. We’re creating an entire neighborhood from the ground up, with a casino already integrated from the beginning. The fact is that the casino, on just two percent of the square footage, makes everything else possible. It is the engine that transforms this giant dirt lot today into a vibrant neighborhood. And we know that we’re the team to do it.”
Bailey said the neighborhood would be accessible by multiple forms of public transportation — multiple CTA train lines and bus routes; the new Wells-Wentworth connector slated to open later this year; and public walkways, bike paths, and the water taxi that would access the riverfront in addition to automobile traffic from Interstates 90 and 94. The project would add a CTA Red Line stop at South 15th Street and allows for easier access from the downtown area to neighboring Chinatown, with Bailey calling it “a plan for a sustainable neighborhood that brings disconnected parts of the city together.”
Tim Drehkoff, who will be Rush Street Gaming CEO effective May 1 following Greg Carlin’s announcement he would resign last month, promoted his company’s ability to provide high-end gaming in urban areas. Drekhoff cited successful builds in the Fishtown area of Philadelphia and Schenectady near Albany in New York, in which Rush Street worked in tandem with both law enforcement and the community at large to address crime and safety concerns.
Rush Street enjoys success as operator of the state’s top revenue-generating casino less than 20 miles away at Rivers Casino Des Plaines. Drekhoff said the proposal offers jobs that pay an average of $65,000 annually and positions that are available after weeks of training with no prior experience.
“Why is Rush Street the right operator for this community? First, we only develop casinos in urban markets. It’s all we do, and this experience matters,” said Drekhoff, who touted Rush Street’s Chicago roots and ability to provide employees with careers that generate wealth. He added, “We have a community-centered approach that drives everything we do.”
He said that if Rivers 78 is approved, the goal is to have the temporary casino be a cruise ship. It would have up to 1,000 gaming positions while docked near the permanent site operational within 18 months.
A goal of providing nearly 40,000 jobs
Though the casino and entertainment district was projected to create between 3,400 and 4,400 construction jobs and nearly 3,500 permanent casino jobs, the number Related kept circling back to was the 39,000 jobs it said would be generated in the entire neighborhood.
Yanet Garcia, vice president of construction for Related, called Rivers 78 “an unparalleled opportunity to bring sustained wealth to all neighborhoods” and stressed the importance of getting women involved in the earliest stages of the project. She pointed out more than 200 companies have signed “our shared commitment for industry transformation” with Related in hopes of changing the way projects are built in Chicago.
Nosa Ehimwenman, president of The Bowa Group, which would be the prime general contractor, talked as the son of immigrants about what it means as a minority-owned company to become the lead contractor for a $2 billion project.
“What transformation is, and what opportunity looks like, it’s me,” Ehimwenman said, noting 80% of his employees are minority and/or women. “Now it’s my responsibility to do the same for our community, and 78 is the vessel that can help us do that.
“Curt mentioned that Bowa is the general contractor for the entertainment district. I’d like to point out how rare that is in this great city we call home. For a minority-owned contractor to be prime on a megadevelopment like this, it’s unheard of.”
Unexpected sources of public pushback
After Chicago Chief Engagement Officer Tina Hone read comment cards from the public covering aspects both for and against the Rivers 78 proposal, the question-and-answer session began with an 11-year-old named Shawn, who was excited about the proposal until learning the casino was part of it.
A second speaker brought up a Rivers Casino settlement from 2014 with the National Labor Relations Board over claims the casino attempted to prevent employees from unionizing. Drekhoff pushed back on that claim to a degree, asserting Rush Street “has a good relationship with labor” and that the hourly staff at the New York casino is unionized.
A third resident from the nearby Pilsen neighborhoods offered criticism regarding the juxtaposition of affordable housing versus her claim the average West Loop median income was more than $150,000 annually. A second Pilsen resident cited a survey that 78% of respondents were against the casino, and Bailey answered by referring to a poll from Axios in which residents “thought the 78 was the most appropriate place for a casino.”
Some attendees spoke in favor of Rivers 78, including Christina Beran, president and owner of Chicago Voice and Data Authority. Beran noted her company, an electrical contractor union shop, got its first major contract from Related and has grown from seven to 30 employees while working more than $10 million in sales and contracts as of last year.
The $248.7 million in tax revenue from casino gaming in 2021 does not include sports betting, which provided an additional $78.8 million. That combined total was still less than half the $717.7 million in tax receipts generated by the nearly 42,000 video gaming terminals (VGTs) statewide last year.
Photo courtesy Rivers 78 Gaming LLC proposal submitted to the city of Chicago. Chris Altruda is a Logan Square resident in Chicago and lives closest to the Bally’s Tribune site of the three proposals for the downtown casino.
