Governor Rauner Reintroduces Plan To Sell Thompson Center

Republican state legislative leaders Senator Christine Radogno and Representative Jim Durkin are introducing measures reigniting Rauner’s proposal to sell the Thompson Center in the central loop to a private developer. The idea is to add hundreds of millions of dollars in state budget savings and City of Chicago real property tax revenues by putting the whole city block back on the city’s property tax rolls. Alternative proposals for the private use of the block bounded by Lake, Clark, Randolph and LaSalle streets include the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill designed 115 story, three million square foot multi-use tower, and Helmut Jahn’s slightly shorter hotel and residential tower preserving the Thompson Center’s dramatic atrium next door. Renderings of these proposals are pictured above.

If it were to actually be built, the 115 story tower covering the entire block would replace the former Sears, now Willis, Tower as Chicago’s tallest building.