[denizen467]

^ On the one hand, the RFQ PDF is 125 pages, so there's a bit to flip through before making comments. Among other things it details 3 potential rail corridors and 4 potential downtown terminus sites (no huge surprises though). On the other hand there's little to really comment on, and it's all still just aspirational, until there's real number crunching and actual feedback from the market with the RFQ responses early next year. One big issue not discussed before seems to be what real estate opportunities at the termini might be offered to the developers in order to make the project's economics work. Imagine if no Rosemont existed yet, and a bunch of land or zoning or infrastructure were offered and a developer made the project viable by planning a shopping and entertainment district near the terminus. In this case, the City has available land around the CONRAC and in the surface lots between T1-T3 and near T5; serious plans emerged last year to site hotels in all 3 of those places, and they (or similar sites or amenities) could be deployed as commercial sweeteners for the rail developer, for example. Even something crazy like an outlet mall built on top of the CONRAC (and directly linked to downtown) could divert easy dollars from Rosemont and maybe be not so crazy. Lots of empty land will become available once the car rental companies vacate all their surface lots.