We wouldn’t be surprised if developer Bob Dunn had famed Chicago planner Daniel Burnham’s phrase, “Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men’s blood,” framed and hung on a wall in his office. If fully realized, his proposed $20 billion megadevelopment, One Central, would reshape the city’s skyline, adding 22.3 million square feet of buildings, more than 9,000 residences and enough office space to fill the Willis Tower — twice.
Chicago never got anywhere by thinking small, so Dunn deserves plaudits for the scale he envisions. His dream development, if backed by the city and state, would be built on a sprawling platform over train tracks just west of Soldier Field. One Central’s skyscrapers would rise to as high as 89 stories. Anchoring the project would be a massive transit hub serving as a rail nexus for Amtrak, Metra and the CTA.
Renderings and marketing copy give off a “Blade Runner” vibe. There’s the Experiential District, a 400,000-square-foot, neon-suffused event space for corporate events, game-day tailgating (assuming there is a team to tailgate for) and more. The Lifestyle District would be all about wellness, with a fitness club, spa, health center and retail space. An Entertainment District would feature live music, bars and restaurants, and the Neighborhood District would give surrounding South Loop residents a grocery store, shops and yetmore restaurants.
Dunn’s imagined Xanadu is big, and so is his ask from taxpayers.
He wants $6.5 billion in state financing over 20 years to help build the transit hub. That kind of outsize commitment from taxpayers demands ironclad justification. Dunn first proposed One Central in 2019. He recently came out with a transit study he commissioned that demonstrated “overwhelming demand for the Transit Hub.” According to the study, the hub would generate 55,507 CTA boardings every day, and 9,820 Metra boardings daily.
Those numbers seem encouraging. But we have two major problems.
First, this was a study commissioned by Dunn. In courtrooms, defense lawyers hire psychiatric experts to provide testimony that bolsters the case of their clients. We’d like to see an unbiased, independent study done on the viability of the proposed transit hub. Any expenditure of taxpayer’s money needs a frank cost-benefits analysis.
Second, Chicago still doesn’t know what its post-pandemic landscape will look like. Workers have been gradually returning to their offices in the Loop, but it’s becoming clear that work-from-home will be part of the long-term workday dynamic. That means mass transit ridership likely will suffer, and Metra and CTA will need to make adjustments to levels of service especially during traditional commuter hours. Any meaningful transit analysis must take into account the changing work environment.
The potential for many more Chicagoans to be working from home long after COVID-19 also raises big questions about the massive scale of office space Dunn wants to build — 9.45 million square feet of it. The pandemic created so much vacant retail and office space — does Chicago really need more glass and steel that it struggles to fill? Will existing building owners welcome their tax dollars going to fund more competition in a tough ongoing market?
Dunn doesn’t sound daunted by the prospect of the Bears U-Hauling out of Soldier Field for Arlington Heights. He has said he doesn’t think the team’s possible exit “affects our plans in a material way.” If the Bears stay, of course, it’s likely a ton of that game-day foot traffic would make its way to One Central’s big supply of restaurants, shops and music venues. If they leave, it’s a fair bet One Central would get eerily quiet on Sundays.
Big, bold plans have always intrigued us. For Chicago to compete globally, it has to think, dream and build on a daring scale. But with risk comes the need to assess the hit on taxpayers.
Dunn and his team have yet to make their case. He plans to submit to city officials a zoning application for his project later this month or in early November.
Springfield also has a major say in this. Both state and city officials should be blunt with Dunn: Prove that One Central, particularly its transit hub, is a boon for Chicago and Illinois and not another boondoggle.
Yes, Chicago should always build big. Big and smart.
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