City To Buy Hospital Site For Olympic Village

[knoebelsPT]

It looks like the city is going to buy the Michael Reese site on the southside to develop in to the Olympic Village.

Personally, I think this makes a lot more sense than the lakefront village plan. It is less romantic for sure, but bounds more practical. Building anything on a deck (like the lakefront village) costs an incredible amount of money and always seems prone to cost overruns and delays. For example, Millennium Park or even the site of the west side stadium in NYC. The hospital site also better integrates with the surrounding community and street grid and is much easier to sell as a legacy project. I would venture that it would also have improved transport and travel times for athletes.

Here is a map for those not familiar:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=41.....03931&z=15

And finally the story from the Chicago Tribune.

City wants to buy hospital site for Olympic Village

Posted by Hal Dardick and Kathy Bergen at 6:50 p.m.

The City of Chicago wants to borrow $85 million to buy a South Side hospital in hopes the site will become part of the Olympic Village in 2016, city and Olympic bid officials announced Tuesday.

The money would go to purchase the 37-acre Michael Reese Hospital site. If the city does not win its bid for the 2016 Olympics, the amount paid to site-owner Medline Industries of Mundelein would rise to $90 million, Chicago Planning Commissioner Arnold Randall said.

"This is a very creative financing solution," Randall said. "We are not laying out any money. We aren’t using any tax dollars."

As part of the deal, which will be introduced Wednesday to the City Council but won’t get an immediate vote, Medline Industries would immediately donate $20 million to the city, Randall said.

The city would use those funds to pay for building demolition, site cleanup and annual interest on the city’s 15-year loan. During the first five years of the loan, only interest would be due.

If the property is not used for the Olympic Village, it would be sold to a private developer, in part to help boost the economic prospects of the South Side.

Lori Healey, Mayor Richard Daley's chief of staff, said the city would "never" end up on the hook for the entire purchase.

Randall said the city would close on the property on Dec. 31. Within a year, it would sell the property to a purchaser either for an Olympic Village that later would be converted for private use or for a private development not far from the shoreline of Lake Michigan, he added.

[Jim856796]

Don't tell me that the Lakefront Olympic Village was probably cancelled and there's a new village proposal at some hospital site. I liked the Lakefront village proposal better.

[baron-pierreIV]

Don't tell me that the Lakefront Olympic Village was probably cancelled and there's a new village proposal at some hospital site. I liked the Lakefront village proposal better.

You would but the Reese site seems more plausible since there is going to be REAL land over there to build on. Perhaps they will turn the original OV plan over the transit area of McCormick into a park. That whole combo sounds like a better and MORE reasonable plan than previously.

[LA84]

Don't tell me that the Lakefront Olympic Village was probably cancelled and there's a new village proposal at some hospital site. I liked the Lakefront village proposal better.

Michael Reese is still walking distance to the lake - maybe a 1/2 mile.

Perhaps they will turn the original OV plan over the transit area of McCormick into a park.

I would almost gurantee that. Although that might be the end of the Eco Bridge if they do.

[Soaring]

- they would have to cover the truck staging area with something. I just couldn't imagine athletes looking out their window to a giant parking lot, and being cut off from the lake.

I wish we could have both the eco bridge and the park over the truck staging area, but in all likelyhood the eco bridge was dead before it ever really became an option. We'll see what Chicago 2016 puts in their bid...

[baron-pierreIV]

- they would have to cover the truck staging area with something. I just couldn't imagine athletes looking out their window to a giant parking lot, and being cut off from the lake.

I wish we could have both the eco bridge and the park over the truck staging area, but in all likelyhood the eco bridge was dead before it ever really became an option. We'll see what Chicago 2016 puts in their bid...

Well only those billeted with a 'lake view' would see this area. If you're NOT facing the lake, then you wouldn't see this 'giant parking lot.' Besides, it's NOT like those athletes have NOT seen a parking lot before.

[Soaring]

Yes, it would only affect lake views, but wouldn't those be considered the more desirable ones? That would be hampered by an ugly truck staging area. There is not doubt in my mind that they would make modifications to that area. How far they go with a park/design is a whole other question. If the OV were fairly tall highrises, it wouldn't be much of an issue, but they won't be - so their views on the ground are what matters.

[Jim856796]

I have just discovered that the Michael Reese Hospital site is VERY close to the McCormick Place parking area. I should have combined those two sites together for a perfect Olympic Village for Chicago.