The Fire today cut the ribbon on the club’s $100M training facility on the Near West Side, according to Danny Ecker of the CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS. Sitting on 26 acres near the Illinois Medical District, the Endeavor Health Performance Center “includes 5 1/2 fields and a 56,000-square-foot training and office building.” It is the “realization of a plan” Fire owner Joe Mansueto unveiled more than three years ago to “help raise the club’s profile in the city after relocating its home games to Soldier Field from suburban Bridgeview.” The project marked a “rare major investment” by a local professional sports franchise in a neighborhood that has “historically struggled to attract any big real estate developments, let alone one from an MLS franchise.” The billionaire Morningstar founder said that the completion of the training center demonstrates the club’s commitment to the city, “noting the facility will provide an ongoing economic boost for the Near West Side and ideally help the Fire reach more fans.” The club is scheduled to pay the Chicago Housing Authority to lease the land, “money that could support projects such as ongoing renovations at the existing ABLA/Brooks Homes just east of the performance center.” The Fire are contributing $8M toward community projects, including $4M for the redevelopment of a CHA storage warehouse next to the soccer fields into a community center (CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS, 3/4).
FRUSTRATION MOUNTS: In Chicago, Lizzie Kane noted yesterday community members, public housing residents and worker and housing advocates “remain frustrated” with the Fire and the Chicago Housing Authority, whose land the facility sits on. CHA residents who showed up for the ribbon-cutting ceremony “were asked to leave and then escorted out by security and Chicago police.” CHA residents “stood quietly in the new center.” ABLA Homes Local Advisory Council President Mary Baggett said that she asked the other residents to leave “because they were there to be ‘disruptive.’” Baggett spoke at the event, “praising the Fire for their investment in the community.” The residents who were asked to leave said that they were there to “learn what is going on in their community.” The facility has been “mired in controversy from its inception.” The City Council “initially blocked the deal and then reversed course” in September 2022, and housing advocates sued CHA -- the entity that leased the land to the team -- the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and then-HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge in June 2023, “alleging the deal to lease 23 acres of vacant CHA land did not undergo proper local and federal reviews.” Members of Congress “also expressed concerns,” sending letters to Fudge and then-CHA CEO Tracey Scott, after the project broke ground in April 2023. The lawsuit was dismissed in October. The lease agreement between CHA and the Fire is “expected to generate about” $40M in revenue for CHA over the next 40 years, with that money “going toward existing CHA housing efforts” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 3/4).
