A New Piece of Land for the Olympic Stadium

Recently I spoke to a resident in Hyde Park who does not want the temporary Olympic stadium to be built in Jackson Park. She likes her neighborhood the way it is and doesn't want the inconvenience of the Olympics to hamper her area. Fine.

I never thought the idea was good in the first place. I mean the city is touting a compact Olympic games, so why have one of the most important venues so far away? The cities explanation was to share some of the development perks with other areas of the city (and parts of Hyde Park could definitely use some of the perks associated with huge civil development projects).

Anyway, I was trying to think of alternative places that could house such a massive structure and one stood out to me. I'm not sure what this area is called but it's bounded by Roosevelt on the North, Clark on the east, the Chicago river on the west and 18th street on the south. It's a HUGE vacant piece of property that as of now looks like an empty field of grass.

I've read that this is privately owned, but maybe there is a way for the city to sieze it or something (eminent domain anyone?). Anyway here is a map of the area I'm talking about:



Does anyone know anything about this land? I think Tony Rezko might have something to do with it, but not sure. I've also read that some foreign investor might own it.