The owners of Chicago’s United Center are seeking nearly $55 million in long-term property tax breaks on a planned $7 billion development around the Near West Side sports arena, one of several real estate projects involving professional teams that could redraw sections of the nation’s third-largest city in the years to come.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and the city’s planning department said they were proposing a Cook County Class 7(b) property tax incentive to the City Council.
If approved by the city’s 50 alderman, the owners of the arena — the Wirtz family, which owns the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, and the Reindsdorf family, which owns the NBA’s Chicago Bulls — would save about $54.7 million in property taxes on buildings constructed during the planned $500 million first phase of the mixed-use development, according to a statement from the mayor and his planning department.
Class 7(b) incentives are often used for real estate projects such as manufacturing facilities, but the United Center proposal is the first public disclosure that the sports franchises that share ownership of the arena are seeking public dollars.
Class 7(b) incentives last 12 years, with potential renewals.
The request comes as the United Center’s owners said they are close to starting construction on the initial phase of the 1901 Project, which is named for the arena’s address at 1901 W. Madison St.
Crowded field of stadium plans
The Bulls and Blackhawks aren’t the only teams drawing up plans that are expected to significantly change entire neighborhoods — or even create new ones.
Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire broke ground earlier this month on a 22,000-seat stadium along the Chicago River in the South Loop. That project is within a 62-acre project the developer Related Midwest calls The 78, a reference to the expected creation of the city’s 78th neighborhood.
Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox are exploring options for a new stadium, including within The 78 or directly across the river in a potential redevelopment of a rail yard.
One of the NFL’s founding teams, the Chicago Bears, are considering moving the team to a site in the northwest suburbs that the team owns or across state lines for a project that would be heavily subsidized by Indiana taxpayers.
Public incentives for sports teams have long been controversial, particularly in the case of a city and state facing fiscal challenges.
Fire owner Joe Mansueto has said the soccer team’s stadium will be privately financed, but the team is in ongoing negotiations with the city about how infrastructure such as roads to support the stadium will be funded.
The Bears have said they are mulling a move out of the state in part to shield themselves from long-term property tax costs and because they believe Illinois officials including Gov. JB Pritzker have been slow to support tax incentives to pay for infrastructure related to a new stadium.
First phase: music hall, retail, hotel
Class 7(b) tax incentives are proposed only for the initial phase of the United Center’s 1901 Project, which is expected to include a 6,000-seat music hall, retail and restaurant space, a hotel, parking garages and green space.
The first phase of the project will add about 800,000 square feet of buildings on 12.3 acres south and west of the arena, which would create a net increase of $46.3 million in tax revenue, according to the city’s statement. The city said the project will create nearly 2,000 construction jobs, 600 permanent jobs and 180 part-time positions.
The overall project is expected to create more than 9,400 residential units, and it could include a new Chicago Transit Authority train station.
United Center owners unveiled the scope of their plans in 2024, and they won zoning approval in early 2025. The arena’s owners assembled a sea of parking lots in the area over decades, and they have continued buying more lots since 1901 Project plans emerged.
The United Center opened in 1994, replacing the neighboring, since-demolished Chicago Stadium.
In an email to CoStar News, the United Center spokesperson said the owners remain in discussions with the city to obtain approvals such as permits to begin construction of the first phase soon.