^ DO NOT F THIS UP, Alderwhores. We citizens cannot afford even the slightest hiccup.

Zoning should be kept far out of aldermanic hands. Get rid of 40 of these chumps and then I might be ok with them having a say.

Read the article. The hang up isn't over zoning

Like the rush to sell the parking meters... I think we left $1 Billion or more on the table? No need to rush the sale of city assets.... unless an insider is getting some sort of benefit.

this is a legitimate concern

chicago dosent exactly have a great track record with its sales of assets.

Maybe this is a ploy to get Sterling Bay to cough up more money?

I'd imagine they'd run into some legal issues with the brewesry if they tried to brand the development "Goose Island". They might be able to get away with Lincoln Yard at/on Goose Island, but that's a mouthful.

This is north of Goose Island.

Onni Group's bud was $10 million higher, but they said they'd close the deal in 12-17 months. Sterling Bay said they'd close it within 120 days. While $10 million less, Sterling Bay's offer was a much safer play

Considering Amazon's time frame for HQ2, this is definitely the safer play. I'm pretty sure even the aldermorons can figure that out, considering what is possibly at stake here. It would be pretty tough to win reelection if you are the reason Amazon skipped Chicago for another city. Then again, I might be putting too much faith in the electorate of our fair city :)

I just don't see this as the prime contender for HQ2 for reasons we have discussed before at length. But if we insist on this being such, then Rahm can pull a Daley and steamroll the Alderman in order to get the votes he needs to push this through.

How badly he pushes for this would be a good indicator of whether he sees this as a fitting site for Amazon and whether Amazon takes interest in it.

Personally I think that the OPO is the best option for HQ2, but its not going to be what Rahm, you or I think is the best site. Bezos is going to choose in the end. Its much better to offer him multiple excellent sites in the city, instead of putting all our eggs in one basket.

Get the property into the hands of a seasoned developer that knows whats at stake and knows how not to fumble a development of this scale. The rest is then up to forces outside our control.

wouldn't selling to an adjacent property owner demand a higher price tag, not lower? I've always heard that continuous property control has a higher value, not less.

It's important to keep in mind that any sealed-bid process is going to have some randomness and strategic behavior (this wasn't a strategy-proof sealed-bid second-price auction, after all), so we cannot necessarily infer bidders' private values from their bids.

As much as I like competitive bidding, I think the public wins here when the city is able to coordinate planning with a single master developer.

City planners are expecting Sterling Bay to take the lead in funding and building new infrastructure for the area. Currently it seems like SB's plan includes a new north/south bridge linking Southport to Throop, and another pedestrian bridge at Wisconsin. If the 2FM site goes to another developer and not to Sterling Bay, what incentive does Sterling Bay have to pay for infrastructure that enriches their rival?

The end result would be two isolated pods of development on opposite sides of the river, with no new infrastructure linking them or easing traffic on the choked streets in this area.

Well this is encouraging news

United Soccer League expansion team coming to North Side site proposed for Amazon's HQ2
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...121-story.html

http://www.trbimg.com/img-5a147e08/t...ge/750/750x422

This new soccer team looks primed to eat the Fire's lunch. Hopefully its successful and kick jumps the Fire to move back into the city from the industrial suburb they play in now.

The Fire's contract with Bridgeview/Toyota Park is so jaw-droppingly bad that I can't see any upside to this development or the prospect of finding a separate, closer site for that organization. I'm honestly just rooting for the USL team to suck up the Fire's attendance so much that they fold, leaving the MLS to invite the USL club in. I don't think it's likely we see anything other than A) an extremely financially troubled Bridgeview Fire, B) a Fire that sustains popularity under a mountain of debt after relocation, or C) they gone.

I'm assuming this is being privately financed? Sterling Bay must be feeling pretty confident about the area if they're buying a franchise and building them a stadium...

I thought that the Fire had a sweetheart deal with the village of Bridgeview. The town is on the hook for the entire cost of the stadium (construction and maintenance), which has caused the municipal portion of the local property taxes to more than double over the last decade since its construction.