CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS: United Center owners break ground on 1901 Project

By Danny Ecker

Construction is underway on the first phase of a $7 billion mixed-use development surrounding the United Center, formally kicking off a megaproject that stands to dramatically reshape a swath of the Near West Side.

The arena’s co-owners today held a groundbreaking ceremony for the 1901 Project, their vision to build up the sea of parking lots surrounding the United Center with 14 million square feet of commercial, residential and entertainment-focused buildings. The symbolic dirt-turning by Chicago Bulls President Michael Reinsdorf and Chicago Blackhawks Chairman Danny Wirtz, whose families co-own the arena and are spearheading the project, came nearly two years after they unveiled plans for the megadevelopment.

“Today is an important milestone because we’re moving this project from vision to reality,” Reinsdorf said during the event on the United Center’s south parking lot. “This is a special day for the West Side. It’s a special day for the city of Chicago.”

Standing before a crowd that included Mayor Brandon Johnson and Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, among other elected officials on hand, Wirtz called the project a continuation of his family’s commitment to the Near West Side and a chance to make the United Center a gathering point for residents whether or not they are attending an event.

“The energy in the walls of that building are unlike anything we see in the city,” Wirtz said. “But until now, that thrill, that excitement, starts only when you walk through those doors. But we’re going to change that.”

The centerpieces of the project’s $500 million first phase are a new park space-topped parking garage along the arena’s western edge and a 6,000-seat music hall immediately southwest of the arena, designed to be finished by 2028. The initial phase also includes a 180-room hotel planned on the venue’s south parking lot.

Later phases of the 1901 Project call for 25 acres of open space and hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail and office space. A range of residential projects planned around the arena will tally up to 9,463 apartments, according to the proposal.

The team is also pushing for the city to build a new CTA Pink Line station east of the arena by 2034. Department of Planning & Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright said during the ceremony that prospect is “incrementally coming closer to a reality.”

The groundbreaking came a couple weeks after the City Council signed off on a $55 million property tax incentive for the project, which the United Center owners have touted as a privately-funded development. The Class 7(b) property tax abatement lowers the development’s tax bill for 12 years.

A United Center-led venture took out a $125 million mortgage from Rosemont-based lender Wintrust in April, according to Cook County property records. An arena spokeswoman said that financing will back the 1901 Project’s initial phase as well as some work at the arena itself.