Demolition of Bally's Casino at the former site of the Tribune publishing house begins

CHICAGO (CBS) — The future Bally's Casino in Chicago took a big step forward Tuesday as workers began demolishing the former Chicago Tribune Freedom Center printing plant where the casino complex will be built.

The new $1.7 billion casino and hotel complex will be built on the site of the former printing plant at Halsted Street and Chicago Avenue in River West.

Bally's Corporation Chairman Soo Kim and Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) were among those who ceremoniously smashed stacks of bricks with large golden hammers Tuesday morning before demolition of the Freedom Center officially began.

Construction on the new Bally's will begin soon after. This 30-acre riverfront hotel and casino complex will open in fall 2026.

In July, Bally's announced that it was $940 million deal with Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc.a real estate investment fund, for the basic financing of its casino.

The future casino will include a 500-room hotel tower, a 3,000-seat theater and six restaurants.

“We're really excited to build something here that fits with Chicago as a whole. Of course, River West fits with River North and Fulton Market. I think what we have planned for you is just fantastic and will make everyone proud,” Kim said.

Once the casino opens, Bally's expects four million visitors a year – a fourfold increase from what they expect at the temporary location at Medinah Temple in River North.

“This is bigger than a museum, bigger than Wrigley in terms of the number of people that will be coming in and out of here – a 500-room hotel,” Kim said. “It's just a huge undertaking.”

Kim explained that the Freedom Center's demolition was postponed after it was discovered that the construction caissons used to anchor the future casino-hotel had punctured underground city water mains, leading to the hotel being moved from the Chicago Avenue side of the project further south, closer to Grand Avenue.

“It’s almost the same design, but almost the opposite,” Kim said.

For Aldred Burnett, in whose district the casino site is located, it is important to get people involved in the project. He described the project as “personal.”

“If my people don't have food, nobody has food. So if the people of Cabrini Green don't start working on this site, there will be no further development in the 27th District until I'm satisfied,” he said.

Burnett said he would hold back more than $1 billion worth of local projects in his district if residents of his district were not given a chance to find good jobs.

“I know what a lever is,” said Burnett. “It's called leverage.”

How does Burnett know if the work on site has been properly organized?

“If contractors, developers and union members want more work in the future, they're going to have to come up with something,” Burnett said. “They'll find a good metric that satisfies me.”

Future projects depend on what happens now at the Bally's site, and Bally's has broken ground on what not everyone thought was a sure thing.

“We told you we would do it,” Kim said. “We're looking forward to it.”

The casino project will cost $1.7 billion. Bally's said it will create 3,000 construction jobs and employ another 3,000 workers once the casino – with thousands of gaming tables and slot machines – opens.

The Freedom Center, designed by the famed architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, opened in 1981. As Open House Chicago describes, one-ton rolls of newsprint were transported to the Freedom Center by rail and truck and stacked in a warehouse before being loaded onto 10 large web offset printing presses, where cylinders made of aluminum plates and rubber covers transferred the ink to the building.

In addition to the Tribune itself, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal also used the Freedom Center for their printing operations.

Before the Freedom Center opened, the Chicago Tribune printed its newspapers directly at its headquarters in the Tribune Tower, 435 N. Michigan Ave. In 2018, the Tribune left the Tribune Tower itself and eventually moved its offices and newsroom to the Freedom Center after residing in rented space at One Prudential Plaza for several years.

The Tribune is now printed at a plant in Schaumburg. The newsroom moved to the Brooks Building downtown, 223 W. Jackson Blvd., the third move in six years.