By Jake Berent
On May 16th, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel announced plans for a brand new 10,000 seat events center to be built at McCormick Place, with DePaul University being the facility’s primary tenant.
Some of Elevate Chicago’s construction projects will begin as early as Summer 2013.
That was not the only announcement made by Mayor Emmanuel that day. Along with McCormick Place CEO Jim Reilly and Chicago Federation of Labor President Jorge Ramirez, Emmanuel announced a $1.1 billion project, titled “Elevate Chicago” that is intended to bring in millions of tourism dollars for the city and open itself up to attract more convention and exposition business.
The plan, broken into two major parts, will each benefit the two major parties involved, the City of Chicago and DePaul University.
Here’s a look at what each group is putting in, and getting out of the agreement.
City of Chicago
The city of Chicago will be the greatest benefactor from this deal. Rahm Emanuel is accomplishing several goals he set out to accomplish as mayor. Emanuel has always stood firmly on the topic of tourism revenue in the city.
“From day one when I was elected mayor, I made it a priority to make sure Chicago’s convention and tourism industry was no longer second,” said Emanuel. “Last year, (hotel occupancy) generated over $100 million worth of hotel tax revenue. Taxes and revenue, we don’t ask from Chicago taxpayers. Visitors and conventioneers pay for it.”
The first part includes major improvements to McCormick Place. In addition to plans for an events center, Emmanuel along with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (McPier) announced plans for the construction 500 and 1,200 room hotels and dozens of entertainment and shopping venues around the convention center complex.
The second part plans for major improvements to Navy Pier. According to a press release by the Mayor’s Press Office, these include face-lifts to many of the Pier’s areas in order to “give it a more contemporary design and popular appeal”, additional shopping and dining, and a remodeling of the Chicago Children’s Museum.
McCormick Place CEO Jim Reilly sums up why “Elevate Chicago” will be a boon for both DePaul and the City of Chicago.
“We couldn’t afford to build it by ourselves, just as DePaul couldn’t afford to build a basketball arena all by themselves. By working together in a classic public-private partnership, as much as anything it comes closer to being the truth that DePaul was subsidizing us than vice-versa. They get a great deal out of this as do we.”
Emanuel and Reilly envision an entirely new nightlife district in Chicago located along E. Cermak Rd. and along Chicago’s historic Motor Row.
Parking garages and vacant lots now occupy the land that will become McCormick Place’s new event center, hotels, and shopping outlets.
“Imagine, in a couple of years. That area over there, goes from being mostly vacant lots and run down buildings, and it goes to being a vibrant, urban entertainment center stretching all the way out to Motor Row,” said Reilly.
Additionally, large scale improvements will be made to Navy Pier, which Emanuel believes is just as important to the city as McCormick Place.
“Navy Pier gets over 9 million visitors a year. It’s the biggest attraction not just in Chicago, not just in the state of Illinois, but in the Midwest,” Emanuel said.
According to the mayor, 10,000 jobs are expected to be created by the project, 3,700 of which will be permanent.
Standing in front of McCormick Place officials and workers from various trade unions, Emanuel proclaimed his hopes for the Chicago of tomorrow.
“Navy Pier is key to the city’s future, McCormick Place is key to the future, all these men and women behind me and the thousands behind them are key to the city’s future,” said Emanuel. ”No one interest can trump an overall goal for the city. Our leadership is non-negotiable. I will not let it go away, I will not let it go by the wayside.
DePaul University
DePaul University’s basketball program was once a jewel of Chicago sports. With homegrown talent and legendary coach Ray Meyer raving about the sidelines, the Blue Demons were one of the hottest tickets in town. Beginning in 1980, this prominence led them to move their home games from their 6,000 seat Lincoln Park arena Alumni Hall, fourteen miles west to the newly built 18,000 seat Rosemont Horizon.
As the program faded after Coach Meyer’s departure, the extra 12,000 seats that prompted the move to Rosemont were left vacant game after game.
Low attendance led to declining support, which led to the inability to draw major recruits, which led to the program’s relegation to the NCAA basketball cellar.
But then, after years of searching for a remedy to their arena situation, that cellar door was cracked open by the city of Chicago, inviting DePaul basketball back to the city.
The announcement thrilled the DePaul community, and has unanimous support from university president Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, athletic director Jean Lenti-Ponsetto, Men’s and women’s head basketball coaches Oliver Purnell and Doug Bruno, and student body president Caroline Winsett.
“This is obviously a very historic and prideful day,” said Lenti-Ponsetto. “I started here back in DePaul in 1974 and I feel like we’ve been talking about having an arena near campus or in Chicago since that time.”
An artists rendering of the proposed event center and hotels.
DePaul University is contributing roughly $70 million to the project, which equates to roughly half of the cost to build the arena, which Elevate Chicago officials estimate at $140 million.
Per their tenancy agreement, DePaul will be allotted 17 men’s home games, 10 women’s, three more days for graduation and additional days for practice time.
Fr. Holtschnieder pointed out that DePaul is only receiving one tenth of the open dates in their tenancy agreement, yet providing much more than that in funding, but could not have built the arena by themselves.
“Because if I paid for the whole project myself, I would have had to raise my student’s tuition, and we’ve always said at DePaul, we don’t need an arena for that many days a year,” said Holtschneider.
Students are not only happy their tuition will not increase because of the project, but also that games will be much easier to get to.
“Beginning in 2016, students will be able to take a short El ride from either of DePaul’s campuses to attend a variety of events at the new McCormick Place location,” said Winsett.
The increased fan support combined with other factors could blend into the perfect storm for the Blue Demons, and send them to the next level.
“It’s clearly our goal here at DePaul to have a top-notch program here at DePaul,” said Purnell. “Having a first class top notch arena along with the realignment of the Big East, this has already impacted our recruiting.”
Administrators, coaches, students, everyone at DePaul seems to be on the same page.
Fr. Holtschneider summarizes what this means to the DePaul community, “Our goal is to build a first rate collegiate program, and this gives us the ability to do that.”
Jake Berent 
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