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Owning retail space on State Street in the Loop has become so tough that the owner of one big property on the shopping strip is signaling that he’s had enough. After trying unsuccessfully to sell a 171,000-square-foot retail space at State and Madison streets, the owner missed its April and May interest payments on the property’s $49.7 million mortgage.
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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Tip of the iceberg comes to mind.
No one listens to my suggestion to close off State St to vehicle traffic and make it an outdoor mall. If they would just listen to me…
When the fabled corner of State and Madison — once the center of the retail universe — is a white elephant — you can start writing the Loop’s obituary.
Wasn’t it once called “the busiest corner in the world”…???
Indeed — WTTW did an interactive online history of State and Madison — here is the link
It’s beginning to look alot like Detroit everywhere you go…….
Many more in the works, thatbLori was very business oriented. She should be on the hook for all of it! I bet she’s stolen enough to cover everything. Where did all the Covid money go? I don’t see a lot of violence interrupters at Ruth’s Chris.