CHICAGO — A multibillion-dollar development proposed for the air rights over Metra tracks next to Chicago’s Soldier Field would include a transit center for commuter trains, the CTA and Amtrak, according to a proposal unveiled Wednesday.
The proposed development, called One Central, harkens back to the name Central Station, the name for the neighborhood. That also refers to the site’s past as the location of Illinois Central’s Chicago station. The proposal, reviving a decade-old concept, was first announced earlier this year. [See “Developers seek to build high-rises above Metra tracks near Soldier Field,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 22, 2019.]
The plan, unveiled at a community meeting by developer Bob Dunn, president of Madison, Wis.-based Landmark Development, calls for millions of square feet of high-rise residential units, offices, retail and hotel rooms to be constructed above the Metra tracks. The 34-acre development would be built over 15 years.
Key to the project would be the transit center. Theoretically, the center would provide a link between existing Metra Electric Line service, which runs on the tracks along with South Shore Line trains and has a station at 18th Street, and other modes. The proposal would be highly ambitious — if not unrealistic, experts say — and require significant infrastructure investment.
“This is an opportunity to create what I believe will become America’s most important transit hub as we look to the future,” Dunn said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “And it’s at a site where there’s almost no transportation to the lakefront today.”
For example, Dunn proposes that the CTA’s Orange line be extended to the transit center by a spur. The CTA elevated line is about a quarter-mile west of the proposed transit center site. Dunn also proposed a connection to Metra’s BNSF Line, which would necessitate using the St. Charles Air Line.
The Air Line is currently used by Amtrak. The line runs east from south of Union Station to a junction with Canadian National Railway at the 16th Street interlocking. The CN line continues east, then south under McCormick Place, paralleling the Metra Electric Line.
Also proposed is a new wheeled tram on a paved route, now used by buses, that runs alongside the Metra tracks. The tram, called the Chi-Line, would travel between McCormick Place and Chicago’s downtown.
Dunn said he has been in talks with transit agencies. Metra has confirmed that it has been briefed on the project.
Dunn has declined to offer details on how the project would be financed, how tall the series of skyscrapers envisioned for it would be, or the total square footage of the development. A co-developer, Gerald Fogelson, is responsible for building the massive Central Station residential development on the site of the former IC passenger terminal at the southern end of the city’s Grant Park. Central Station closed in 1972 and the building, known for its clocktower, was demolished in 1974
Hmm… in all of the articles I’ve read re: this new development, not a single one has mentioned the Metra storage yard and shops that will have to be relocated. There is very little real estate elsewhere where Metra can store trains between the morning and evening rushes.
This project IS very ambitious. I can see the Metra Electric buying in on the upgrade to the 18th Street station. Development south of Roosevelt Road has been growing very quickly.
As for the St Charles AirLine, residents want it pulled out. CN doesn’t use it post EJ&E and only Amtrak routes it for access to Union Station. Hopefully we won’t see another Mayor Daley middle of the night track removal like they did punching holes at Meigs Field at 3am.
As for the general “need”, this poses several questions.
CUS and OTC support the rest of Metra traffic outside of Millennium Station, LaSalle Street less so.
Having a new west access to Millenium Station is a fascinating concept but would require alot of work to switch traffic in via the BNSF Cicero Yard. Also Illinois Central sold the land that supported a northbound wye from the SCAL to Central Station to the Chicago Park District (Mark Twain Park) in the 1980’s. So if the developer thinks Metra will want to terminate a train coming across the SCAL at 18th Street station, he is kidding himself.
Metra has looked at switching a new eastbound set of commuters using the CN Iowa line where it crosses the UP West line in Elmhurst. But this would bring everything to OTC.
Most Chicagoans agree that beyond the Electric, getting to Soldier Field, McCormick and the Field by transit is a pain. On game or special event days, CTA runs express buses from all the Metra stations to the events.
With Metra having financial issues as well as the State of Illinois, I can’t see a lot of movement on anything other than an enhanced 18th Street Station. South Loop residents will be very vocal against adding more trains on the SCAL.
I’m surprised the St. Charles Airline is still around. As a condition of the city of Chicago not opposing CN to merge in IC. Removal of the SCAL was a stipulation..
Using the Air Line to bring trains to the Lakefront is an interesting idea. Except that it rows in the wrong direction compared to what has been wanted for many decades.
Amtrak has been trying to get off the Air Line for as long as there has been Amtrak. A simple connection on the South Side between the former IC and the former PRR (the straight shot into Union Station) would save a half hour or so on every Amtrak train in the ex-IC corridor. No one has ever come up with the $$$$ for the connection while passengers’ time, crew salaries and diesel fuel have gone out the window for 48 years because of the route on the Air Line.
The above is one problem. The other is that the city wants to get the Air Line demolished. Canadian National doesn’t need it and hasn’t since they bought EJ&E.
I don’t live in Chicago so don’t have an opinion of my own, just telling what’s been advocated.