Developer of Mega-Development West of LSD and Soldier Field Eagerly Pitching Proposal to Lawmakers

More heat on the proposed development over the train tracks west of Soldier Field and LSD (via Crains):

The developer proposing to build the One Central megaproject on air rights just west of Soldier Field is dangling a powerful political pitch as his request to get billions of state subsidies nears a final decision in Springfield—and he wants lawmakers to decide in the next 10 days whether they'll get behind his plan.

The offer: help for Gov. J.B. Pritzker in paying billions in pension bills, and help for Mayor Lori Lightfoot in opening up transit-short South Side neighborhoods to economic growth.

But in an interview in which he disclosed new details of his $20 billion plan for the first time, Landmark Development’s Bob Dunn declined to make public key financial projections behind his bid, saying he has given them to state officials and presumably will do so with Lightfoot at a meeting he has scheduled with her “in early June.”

Dunn, who immediately after the interview left for Springfield, wants state lawmakers in the next 10 days to approve an unprecedented financial arrangement in which the state essentially would take an equity position in his project.

It still seems like a long shot to us, but Mr. Dunn certainly is putting the pedal to the metal. We shall see.

Interestingly, the article says this about the likelihood of this getting state support:

The language of Dunn’s legislation has not yet been disclosed. Springfield insiders say his measure, which would authorize the state to make an equity investment but still apparently require negotiation of a specific contract, stands a fair chance of passing before the Legislature's scheduled May 30 adjournment—either as a separate bill or, more likely, as a clause in other legislation, such as a pending big capital bill.