Known as “The 78” for its potential to become the city’s 78th official community area, its 62 vacant acres have seen other grand plans surface and fail repeatedly over the years - and many in the community say they want the casino proposal to meet the same fate.ĭozens of South Loop residents grilled the so-called “Rivers 78” casino team during a town hall meeting held at the University of Illinois Chicago’s Dorin Forum, in the city’s final airing of public grievances on the three bids Mayor Lori Lightfoot is weighing to take on the city’s long-sought casino project. The proposal spearheaded by billionaire casino tycoon Neil Bluhm’s Rush Street Gaming and Chicago megadeveloper Related Midwest has its sights set on a rare slice of undeveloped Loop-adjacent land south of Roosevelt Road and west of Clark Street. Known as “The 78” for its potential to become the city’s 78th official community area, the site’s 62 vacant acres have seen other grand plans surface and fail repeatedly over the years - and many in the community say they want the casino proposal to meet the same fate.Ī clout-heavy group of casino developers on Thursday pitched South Loop residents on their plan to build a brand new “neighborhood from the ground up” that they say will create a new “epicenter of Chicago tourism.”īut some of their potential neighbors argued that would be just the problem. South Loop residents tell developers gambling complex ‘inconsistent with the original vision’ for site
