Chicago’s $2 Billion TIF Tiff

Rather than voting as expected to move forward with committee approval of $2 billion in tax increment financing assistance to different developers for mammoth new mixed use developments on Chicago’s north and south sides today, the City Council Finance Committee bowed to pressure from Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot and her cadre of anti-development aldermen elected to take office May 20. Outgoing 40th Ward alderman and Finance Committee Chair Pat O’Connor agreed to conduct a hearing on the proposals and put off committee votes on the two new TIF districts, but only until 9 A.M. Wednesday, just before the City Council is already scheduled to vote on both proposals.

Lightfoot and the eight aldermen-elect are fighting to keep the city from freezing taxes on a total of 168 acres along Chicago River’s North Branch in Lincoln Yards and 62 acres along the South Branch between Harrison Street and Archer Avenue for 23 years, using the tax revenue from increased property values caused by each development to fund infrastructure improvements in the designated neighborhoods. The eight alderman-elect opposing these developments are 1st Ward Daniel La Spata, 20th Ward Jeanette Taylor, 25th Ward Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 33d Ward Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, 40th Ward Andre Vasquez, 45th Ward Jim Gardiner, 46th Ward Marianne Lalonde, and 49th Ward Maria Hadden.

Andrew Gloor’s Sterling Bay proposes a $6 billion 55 acre mixed use development in Lincoln Yards, using $1.3 billion from the 168 acre Courtland/Chicago River TIF for three new bridges, reconfiguration of the intersection at Elston, Ashland and Armitage, river wall reconstruction, and extension of the 606 elevated park, among other infrastructure projects. Curt Bailey’s Related Midwest is expecting $700 million financing from the Roosevelt/Clark TIF to relocate METRA tracks and build a new Red Line CTA station at Clark and 15th.

Bailey predicts his south side development, called The 78, will produce 24,000 permanent jobs and $7 billion of economic development to the near south side, including a $1 billion research facility at UIC. Gloor estimates his Lincoln Yards will generate 10,000 temporary construction jobs and 24,000 permanent jobs on the north side.

Despite the brief delay to accommodate the transparency desires of newly elected, not yet seated City of Chicago officials, it looks like both TIF districts will get City Council approval from the incumbent and outgoing aldermen Wednesday, before the anti-development dissidents can stop it.