[marothisu]

'Once-in-a-generation' South Loop project gets $500M boost from Pritzker

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg...boost-pritzker

In a huge boost for Chicago’s tech industry and for development of the South Loop, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has decided to release $500 million in state capital funds for the budding Discovery Partners Institute in the 78 real estate project on the Near South Side.

The formal announcement, scheduled to come later today in a press conference featuring Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, clears the way for construction of 500,000 square foot headquarters for DPI, including classroom and lab space for thousands of teachers and students expected to use the research facility.

Officials at Related Midwest, which is donating land for the DPI project, said the action provides a critical catalytic spark to attract other tenants to the firm’s 62-acre development along the South Branch of the Chicago River between Roosevelt Road and Chinatown.

The release of the state funds also clears the way for more than $260 million in other high-tech research spending at other campuses around the state, including $85 million for a pharmaceutical and cancer research facility at the University of Illinois at Chicago and $100 million for a big data hub and other buildings at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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“When I got here, there was hardly any matching money,” Pritzker said in an interview. But now, $230 million in hard commitments have been made by various government units and private companies, and the state expenditure should clear the way for “at least” another $270 million.

“This puts Illinois at the epicenter of world commerce,” aid Pritzker, who was in the venture capital business before running for office. “It’s going to create an awful lot of jobs and upskilling”—a projected 1,100 within two years and 15,000 within five years.

Actually, a report prepared for DPI by Boston Consulting Group says the facility, which boosters say they hope will emulate Kendall Square in Boston, could generate even bigger figures, saying DPI should create 48,000 “new economy” jobs over the next decade, 27,000 support jobs and help 23,000 people get better jobs.

University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen said construction of DPI’s first building, along the 1400 block of South Wells, should begin this year, with the facility to include 500,000 square feet of laboratory and other space, classrooms, and an “immersion theater” be used for data visualization.

Related Midwest President Curt Bailey described the announcement as “a seminal moment” for his development, which also will benefit from a somewhat controversial tax-increment financing subsidy approved in Emanuel’s final days.

Bailey said he now expects to move ahead with phase one of his development, with six buildings including a million square feet of office space, a hotel and 400 apartments built by 2024, along with a riverwalk. Construction of a new el stop will come later.

Though Pritzker said private fundraising has stepped up, at least $224 million of the $500 million is coming from state schools in different forms, with UIC, for instance, donating $37 million in bond proceeds, $23 million in “indirect cost recovery,” $18 million in philanthropic gifts and $15 million in clinical revenue.

Two large corporate gifts—$50 million from Foxconn and $65 million from pharmaceutical company Deerfield Management—already had been announced.