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The plan released by Chicago's Farpoint
Development calls for both a $3.2 billion, 75,000-seat stadium
to house the founding NFL franchise as well as $356 million in
parking and infrastructure to be financed privately. It also
includes a park bridge to be built over Lake Shore Drive and 5
million square feet of “neighboring development opportunities.”
Farpoint said $600 million in public funding would be needed for
“infrastructure work that government would normally fund.”
“We believe in Chicago,” Farpoint founding principal Scott
Goodman said in a statement. “We have proposed an opportunity
for the Bears to explore our site, which is viable and where a
stadium can fit. And it fits on the south side of Chicago,
bridging the gap to downtown.”
The Bears declined comment on Friday. They have rejected the
48.6-acre site in the past, saying it was too narrow and that
commuter train tracks presented engineering challenges.
The city acquired the Michael Reese site to serve as an Olympic
Village for the 2016 Summer Games, which wound up going to Rio
de Janeiro.
Bears president Kevin Warren has said repeatedly the focus is on
building a stadium next door to Soldier Field as part of a
transformation of Chicago's lakefront museum campus. That plan
unveiled last spring calls for $3.2 billion for the new stadium
plus $1.5 billion in infrastructure, potentially including a
publicly owned hotel. It got a full-throated endorsement from
mayor Brandon Johnson but a tepid reception from Illinois Gov.
J.B. Pritzker and state legislators.
The Bears also own a 326-acre tract of land in suburban
Arlington Heights where a stadium could be built. They unveiled
a nearly $5 billion plan that also called for restaurants,
retail and more in September 2022, when they were finalizing the
purchase of that site.
The Bears have played at Soldier Field since 1971. The team's
lease runs through 2033.
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