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Vacancy rates for on and near LaSalle Street are higher than any other part of Downtown with 25 percent vacancy for office space and 36 percent for retail space, according to market studies prepared by the city. “There is nearly 5 million square feet of vacant commercial space on the LaSalle Street corridor, but not a single unit of affordable housing,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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The CivicLab calls for the abolition of all TIFs and other forms of crony capitalism and corporate welfare. See our arguments at http://www.endtifsnow.org. Find out about civic engagement work, the TIF Illumination Project at http://www.tifreports.com. info@civiclab.us
This TIF, like most in Illinois, are based upon the brain-exploding proposition that : Nobody will develop this property, because property taxes are too high to make it a prudent investment. THEREFORE, we must give developers TIF money, and in so doing RAISE property tax rates for 35 years, in order to develop this property. It would be less economically destructive to just let the property go undeveloped rather than force taxpayers to subsidize crony-Socialist profits to Illinois version of oligarchs. Eventually, on a level playing field, developers would see opportunities in Illinois to risk their own capital to develop… Read more »
If I were moving to Chicago, I wouldn’t want to live downtown-downtown, most certainly not down the LaSalle Street corridor. Even with this small influx of residents, the area is still going to be relatively dead at night. These office conversions are going to feel like cold apartments. No trees either. Hard pass.
LaSalle St. does also not get much sun, and can be very gloomy. I just can’t imagine living there. Just working in an office there was depressing, compared to the offices I worked in that got a lot of light
Ultimately the business community is responsible for not stopping this monstrous demon mayor. Chicago is a business city, a mercantile city, and previous generations of Chicago’s business class were hard nosed, ruthless, capitalists that would never let their trading post get ransacked by a whacked out Liberal twat. But alas, the new generation of woke boardrooms, DEI trained MBA’s and virtue signaling executives eager to please Larry Fink so he can shill some more of their overly inflated stock to the mindless masses, have utterly failed this city. And it’s not just the city of Chicago, these morons are running… Read more »
It’s only going to get worse. There’s nothing I see on the horizon that will cause DIE to reverse course until the government undertakes a complete debathification of every government bureaucrat, academic, corporation and cultural institution, similar to McCarthy’s communism purge. Our leaders need to make being ‘woke’ a political and financial liability, so much so, that no one dare speak out loud. This would be a great opportunity to fill the ranks with normie conservatives too. Need to play the long game.
Sure, you can play the long game, or you could refuse to play and leave.
You’re already playing the game whether you want to or not. Leaving is nothing more than a tactical retreat giving your enemies the opportunity to become stronger.
Perhaps if Lightintheloafers had maintained law and order instead of allowing the business district to be looted twice by mostly peaceful BLM thugs we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Just ask any older Detroiter what can happen when rioters are given free rein….
Finally the sanctuary city will add housing units for recently arriving illegals instead of immediately shipping them somewhere else because Chicago is sanctuary in name only. NOT IN MY BACK YARD!
Another brilliant idea by Triple Threat! What a fool…
Build a wall around Chicago to keep the animals from infecting the rest of the State.
Another Cabrini Green in t he making.
So, Little Lori creates a TIF fund that (might) add a dribble of taxpayer support to the hundreds of millions that a private sector developer would have to invest in turning a single vacant “historic” office building into apartments.
A third of which would have to be subsidized public-aid housing.
After, of course, the developer spends who knows how long filling out the truckload of guvmn’t forms required to prove they’re eligible, and forking over all of the fees-n-taxes-n-bribes involved in getting something like this project through the “Chicago Way” of doing business.
What a hoot….
It worked for the Jarret family, why not?
The renovation of 175 W. Jackson, the old Insurance Exchange building, cost $100 million in 2002. That’s $164 million in today’s dollars. Now 175 is a huge building, bigger than most on LaSalle St., however, it was converted into huge open office floors, not hundreds of small livable condos or apartments. The cost to convert the old buildings on LaSalle St. will be astronomical. The city does not have the money, and in the current economy and interest rate environment, I doubt that developers do, either.
This has to be just virtue signalling and as you mention not well thought out. The retrofit costs would be astronomical — these office buildings have two bathrooms per floor – retrofitting to 30 or 40 or more is a huge task – moreover the wiring is designed to support lights and the occasional coffee machine or refrigerator – a complete overhaul of the electrical system would be needed – along with code conformances which reflect a list which is very long. And the developers – TIF or not – are going to build to deliver subsidized housing? I think… Read more »
Spot on. This is why I think LaSalle St. and the rest of downtown is in a death spiral. The money does not exist to fix the growing number buildings with vacant spaces. Overlay crime onto the situation and it just accelerates the downward trend.
The world of 2019 is never coming back.
The reality is that in the Chicago region, there is more office space than businesses to fill them. Downtown Chicago is not really attracting new or expanding businesses to fill the empty spaces outside of the west loop and Class A buildings. The suburban markets, which I thought would profit from Chicago’s misfortunes, have actually gotten worse, as the suburbanites flee the region and move to fasting growing Red States. The link below shows that the North suburban region is hemorrhaging office space as net absorption increases exponentially, likely due to the abandonment of some of those phama office towers… Read more »
That link does not paint a pretty picture. Fascinating that the Allstate campus was sold to a warehouse/distribution company. I wonder if Allstate will move their HQ to a low tax state now.
The death spiral or death by a thousand cuts will be facilitated by the taxes lost from companies and people leaving Illinois. Loss of tax revenue is one of the few things that can slow down the progressives, however, there is still enough revenue in Illinois for the progressives to inflict much more pain. A few people in power win, and everyone else loses.
That easy for the communists, wasn’t it.
So Lori wants to improve the vacancy rates by converting office buildings to homes for the homeless? Can you imagine being a business owner, or employee, in that environment? This will only drive vacancy rates higher! You really can’t make this kind of lunacy up. Chicago Democrats have completely lost their collective marbles.
Oh, I don’t know. They’ve done a pretty good job figuring out what to do with Soldier Field after they chased the Bears out to the burbs.
The execution of the plan for Soldier Field won’t be known until the Bears physically leave. That move is going to be a huge financial drain on Chicago that the Mayor has to pretend doesn’t bother her. I am not sure she understands the financial drain as the city cites the Chicago Fire and the Shamrock series with ND football as the events that will fill the void. Yeah right. The city may not recover from her “leadership.”
Fed Up, you need to Google on the Pontiac Silverdome to read ahead on the Soldier Field script…..
Deputy Mayor Samir Mayekar: “I’m a firm believer in free markets. However, the free market is not equitable”. So the Deputy Mayor, holder of an MBA from Northwestern, doesn’t even know what a free market is! The article clearly states that the free market has already spoken, resulting in LaSalle St. office vacancy rates at 25% and retail vacancy rates at 36%. Further, the $197 million in the LaSalle St. TIF fund will not go very far when trying to convert those old buildings into livable spaces. No one in their right mind would pay a premium to live in… Read more »
Spot on Ataraxis — kinda reminds me of Detroit
Delusional Lightfoot Planning To Trash La Salle Street In The Loop With Low Income Housing
She is not delusional, she knows Exactly what she is doing.
Somehow this derelict mayor continues to lower the bar further and further. Way to continue to ruin the financial district even further. It will be section 8 housing and pawn shops where legendary Chicago banks used to drive commerce. What a disgrace.
Those LaSalle St. buildings are old, with low ceilings, old windows and are notoriously difficult to retrofit for plumbing. The HOA for the upkeep would be insane. You know they’ve given up when they want to make lasalle street section 8 housing. Equity!
That will be easy for the communists, they will just tear the historic building down and build new.