ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — Even as Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren has steadfastly repeated the team’s intention to build a new stadium along Chicago’s lakefront, a potential move to northwest suburban Arlington Heights has remained very much an option.
Now, both the team and the village are moving forward in studying plans for a potential new stadium and entertainment district at Arlington Park, the 326-acre former site of Arlington International Racecourse, which the Bears purchased in February 2023 for $197.2 million and still own.
The Arlington Heights Village Board voted unanimously at its meeting Monday night to move forward with studies on the viability of a new Bears stadium and entertainment district at Arlington Park, specifically on new and anticipated traffic patterns created by such a major development.
That comes after the Bears sent the village a letter recently indicating they’re moving forward with their own traffic and economic impact studies and have begun developing an updated concept plan for the Arlington Park site, according to Arlington Heights Village Manager Randall Recklaus at Monday’s Village Board meeting.
Recklaus said during the meeting that the Village Board initially approved an agreement with a consultant in September 2022 to conduct reviews of traffic and parking studies, to be submitted by the Bears, for a proposal for a sports and entertainment district at Arlington Park.
But the Bears paused those studies in 2023 due to a property tax dispute with local school districts over the value of the Arlington Park property.
In December, however, the Village Board, the school districts and the Bears executed a memorandum of understanding that resolved the property tax issues. The Cook County Board of Review certified that property assessment on Feb. 13, and Recklaus said the Bears sent their letter to the village a week later indicating they’d resumed their traffic and economic impact studies of Arlington Park.
That necessitated a motion at Monday’s meeting for Arlington Park to continue its own traffic impact studies, a motion trustees passed unanimously.
“Staff believes it is now necessary to reengage with our consulting teams so that all of this information can be properly vetted and evaluated,” Recklaus said. “These studies are going to be crucial to determine the economic and financial viability of the project and identify a plan for the infrastructure needed to support it.”
Cost of study, timeline
As for what such a study would cost Arlington Heights taxpayers, Recklaus said, “As per the 2022 pre-development agreement that the (Bears) entered into with the village, the club will be reimbursing the village for its expenses for their peer-reviewed studies.”
Trustee Jim Tinaglia reaffirmed in his comments Monday that a traffic impact study would not cost Arlington Heights residents and will be covered by the Bears.
“That fund that’s all there to get this stuff done, that’s not coming out of our tax(payers’) pockets,” Tinaglia said.
Recklaus was also asked about a timeline for a traffic impact study and admitted there isn’t a timeline at this point.
“It depends,” he said.
The village and the Bears would have to review their respective traffic impact studies and then proceed on next steps, Recklaus said.
“Once we receive the traffic studies, we’ll immediately — if this agreement is approved — begin working with them on reviewing it,” he said. “… Making sure that the infrastructure created to manage traffic and parking is sufficient is a major issue as part of our consideration.
“… It’s more, ‘What’s it going to take to do this right?'”
Additionally, Recklaus said the village will have to work with another consultant to study the potential financial and economic impact — in addition to the traffic impact — of a new Bears stadium and entertainment district at Arlington Park.
“That’ll be coming very soon, as well,” he said.
‘Very encouraged’
In January, Warren and Bears Chairman George McCaskey addressed a number of questions regarding the quest for a new stadium, Warren saying the team’s goal is “to have shovels in the ground in 2025.”
Where those shovels will dig, well, that’s long been an issue of speculation.
The Bears have kept insisting they plan to build a new stadium downtown and stay in the city, but all those plans would require significant public funding, something state and local lawmakers have repeatedly refused to approve.
Meanwhile, the old Michael Reese Hospital site on Chicago’s South Side has also been reported as a possible location for a new stadium.
Out in Arlington Heights, the Bears actually own the property a proposed new stadium would be built on. Now that the property tax issues seem to have been cleared up, the road would seem to be open to moving there.
Still, at Monday’s meeting, Arlington Heights Mayor Thomas Hayes stressed there are many hurdles yet to clear.
But he’s encouraged.
“This is just another step, but it’s a very important step, that will allow us to get a little bit further down the road to our own exploration of this possibility,” Hayes said. “So I’m very happy to begin, really, our due diligence with these studies as soon as possible so that we can make a determination on behalf of our residents, this community, whether or not a Chicago Bears stadium in the Village of Arlington Heights would be a good thing for us.
“… I’m very encouraged where we’re at in the process. But, again, we still have a long way to go.”