Chicago city officials and Bally’s management will hold a community meeting on Monday, December 5 to address area residents’ concerns about the impact of Bally’s $1.7 billion casino coming to the Tribune Publishing site. River North residents said they want Bally’s to address extending streets and adding a public park at the casino resort location.
Meanwhile, hundreds of area residents and business owners attended Bally’s community meeting on November 29, where one of the main topics was Bally’s plan to open a temporary casino at the historic Medinah Temple downtown.
Fish Transportation Group Senior Consultant Tim Doron, senior traffic consultant on the casino project, presented a report commissioned by Bally’s on parking availability around Medinah Temple. The report indicated the 5,000-plus spaces in nearby garages were “adequate” to cover the estimated peak demand of 500 spaces during normal casino operating hours. Doron said, “Suffice it to say there is plentiful parking in the area,” as several members of the audience shook their heads.
Doron added he visited the parking garages near Medinah Temple during peak times and counted empty spaces. He also presented diagrams showing how the valet parking, loading and unloading zones and ride-share systems would operate on the streets surrounding the casino.
Chicago Police First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter presented the department’s safety plan, which would include additional patrols, private security hired by Bally’s, increased surveillance cameras and officer training. Carter said, “We’ve done everything we can to work collaboratively with Bally’s to ensure public safety in and around the venue.”
42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly, whose ward includes the Medinah Temple, said, “Bally’s public safety plan is essentially a PowerPoint presentation with a handful of bullet points with no specifics about staffing, force levels, overtime, compensation, all the stuff neighbors want to know about.”
27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett, whose ward includes the permanent casino resort, said, “Everybody is going to be working hard to make sure that the casino has the least amount of challenges for people possible. The city has already taken Bally’s money, $40 million. It’s a done deal, it is what it is so they have to make it work.”
At the meeting, Christopher Jewett, Bally’s vice president of corporate development, and Ameet Patel, senior vice president of regional operations, also discussed job fairs and Bally’s planned community-based initiatives.
The permanent waterfront facility will feature 3,400 slots and 170 table games, plus a 500-room hotel with a rooftop bar, 10 dining options, 65,000-square-foot entertainment center, 20,000-square-foot exhibition hall and outdoor music venue. Bally’s will make yearly payments of $4 million to the city which also will collect an estimated $200 million in yearly tax revenue. Bally’s also will invest $74 million in infrastructure improvements in River West.
