In Chicago, Bally’s purchase of the Freedom Center printing plant from Dallas-based Nexstar Media Group for $200 million is expected to close this month. In October, Rhode Island-based Bally’s exercised its option to buy the 30-acre Freedom Center site to build its downtown Chicago casino, expected to open in 2026.
During a third-quarter earnings call, Bally’s officials said the site will be leased back to raise funds for the proposed $1.74 billion casino complex.
Bally’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Lavan said, “We’re close and focused on a land sale-leaseback in Chicago, because we think that that’s a core part of the capital structure.”
Nexstar Media Group, the nation’s largest owner of TV stations, acquired the Freedom Center site in 2019 as part of its $4.1 billion purchase of Tribune Media, formerly the broadcast parent of Tribune Publishing. In 2018, Tribune Media was approved for a planned multi-use development at the site including offices, a hotel and thousands of residential units.
Nexstar Chief Financial Officer Lee Ann Gliha said, “Also expected to positively impact our fourth quarter is the anticipated sale of one of our remaining real estate properties in Chicago for net cash proceeds of approximately $155 million. The transaction is expected to close later this month.”
To help finance the Chicago venue, Bally’s entered into a $635 million sale-leaseback agreement in July with Gaming and Leisure Properties for Bally’s Tiverton Casino & Hotel in Rhode Island and the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. That deal is expected to close in January, Lavan said.
Bally’s Chair Soo Kim said a similar sale-leaseback deal for the Chicago property would provide another source of funding for casino development in Chicago’s River West. “It’s one of the ways that we were planning to fund the rest of the construction process,” Kim said.
The Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times and other newspapers are printed at the 41-year-old Freedom Center, which is set for demolition to make way for the casino.
However, Kim said he’s open to the Tribune’s printing plant on the River West site along with the casino. Tribune Publishing has exercised an option to extend its printing plant lease at Freedom Center, set to expire in June 2023, for another 10 years. Tribune and Nexstar currently are in arbitration regarding the extension terms.
Bally’s Chicago casino is expected to generate $200 million in annual tax revenue for the city and turn the industrial site into an entertainment destination. The proposed casino complex would include a casino with 3,400 slots and 170 table games, plus an exhibition hall, 500-room hotel, 3,000-seat theater, outdoor music venue and six restaurants. Bally’s would open a temporary casino at Medinah Temple by June 2023.
Bally’s owns and manages 15 casinos across 10 states. It entered Illinois in June 2021 with the $120 million acquisition of Jumer’s Casino & Hotel in Rock Island, renamed Bally’s Quad Cities. The Chicago casino would be its largest.
