Ideas for Old Michael Reese Campus Floated Around Again

Image of Old Michael Reese Hospital Grounds from Chicago Reader

Remember when we covered everything to do with Chicago's Olympic Bid?  Man those were some interesting times and posts.

Well a lingering one continues to give us material.  Chicago Real Estate Daily had a recent story about concepts for the large, vacant former Michael Reese Hospital site (just South of the Sloop):  

The former Michael Reese Hospital site on the South Side is blank slate, but planners and residents took an initial stab at figuring out how to fill it at a meeting Monday evening. 

Suggestions for the 37-acre property on South Lake Shore Drive included building an Obama Presidential Library, transforming it into a technology park and using it for a casino. 

The pressure is on the city of Chicago to do something with the site before October 2014, when the city must starting paying down a $91 million loan on the property, which the Daley administration had wanted to use for the 2016 Olympic Village. Earlier this year, the City Council refinanced the property in a deal with Medline Industries Inc., the Mundelein-based hospital supplier that provided the loan and sold the property to the city.

Interesting stuff.  Still not sure what would be best for the Sloop, but it will be fascinating to see what happens with this space.  The idea of the Obama library is interesting to us.  However, we can think of many other places where we think it would be better placed.