The Chicago Bears are continuing to look at two Northwest Indiana sites as potential locations for the team’s new domed football stadium, but team officials declined to fully commit to the move across the border in a much-hyped press conference Thursday.
“Our focus is on Hammond,” team Chair George H. McCaskey told reporters. “That’s where we’re advancing our efforts, and that’s where the bulk of our time, attention and resources are being devoted.”
The team’s board of directors voted in June to advance the stadium project at possible locations in Hammond — mere minutes from the Illinois border.
The decision follows legislation signed into law by Gov. Mike Braun in February directing potentially $1 billion or more in taxpayer dollars toward infrastructure projects near the stadium site, where officials intend to develop a mix of retail, restaurants, hotels and residential to compliment the stadium.
Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren said Thursday the team is “working diligently” to finish topographical, geographical and environmental studies of sites at Wolf Lake terminal, one of two sites under consideration.
The team already determined the Lost Marsh site in Hammond is a viable location for the stadium project, Warren said, suggesting the team may use both locations for its mixed-use development if the Wolf Lake site is viable.
“It’s reached the point now where we’re starting to get some clarity,” he said. “And the moment we finish our due diligence and have the appropriate capital stack and financing together, we are looking forward to making a decision so we can break ground and get our project going forward.”
Still, Warren told reporters the team has held occasional meetings with Illinois officials, though he said the state has not presented anything in writing to counter Indiana’s offer.
The Bears leaders did not provide a timeline for when the team will reach a decision on the stadium site, nor did they formally rule out the possibility building the stadium on team-owned property in the northwestern Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. Neither, however, appeared optimistic they could reach a deal with Illinois.
“We were waiting to see whether there would be some substantive action taken,” McCaskey said of discussions with Illinois officials.
“We felt we had presented a pretty compelling case that a stadium in Arlington would be beneficial not only for the village of Arlington Heights, but for the community and the entire state—tremendous driver of economic activity, job creation, tax revenue, sales revenue,” he said. “Ultimately, that argument was unsuccessful.”
Originally published on indianacapitalchronicle.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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