A new Chicago White Sox ballpark option has been revealed amid the team’s push for a new stadium.
Canal Edge LLC — a company owned by White Sox minority owner Justin Ishbia, who could take over the team as soon as 2034 — said the mixed-use development called The Railyards could be an option presented to the team as its lease at the publicly owned Rate Field ends.
The stadium would sit alongside the Chicago River stretching from Roosevelt Road to the north to 18th Street to the south, and bordered with the river on its east side and Canal Street to its west. The company currently has the land under contract.
The proposed park would turn the Amtrak railyard into a year-round “riverfront venue” with its outfield opening pointed northeast at the city’s skyline.
The concept is in its “early stages” and is just beginning a monthslong study on the feasibility of transportation and environmental evaluations, the company said in a statement. It called the proposal “a vision at the beginning of a multi-year planning and approval process.”
The mixed-use proposal also includes a Northwestern Medicine “health care presence” as well as “transit-oriented residential, commercial, and retail development.”
“The Railyards is about turning idle land into opportunity — for patients who need better access to care, for a team and its fans who deserve a dynamic Riverfront home, and for a city that needs jobs, housing, and economic investment,” said Ishbia, Canal Edge controlling shareholder. “This is a Chicago project, built by and for Chicagoans, and we are excited about its potential.”
The White Sox said the team will evaluate the outcomes of the site’s studies to decide whether to consider it as a viable option for their next home.
“If the site proves interesting and viable after his due diligence, it would be added to the locations up for consideration for a new ballpark, along with The 78 and other options,” the team said in a statement.
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), whose ward would encompass the stadium site, said he would have an “open mind” but would be focused on “what’s in the best interests” of the his ward and the city.
“I look forward to engaging with the White Sox, 28th Ward residents, and my colleagues in the City Council about a development that has the potential to create good-paying jobs for Chicagoans, improve our transportation infrastructure, and provide a long-term home for one of our city’s storied franchises,” Ervin said in a statement. “At the same time, Chicago faces significant fiscal challenges, and any proposal must protect taxpayers and demonstrate that the public benefits justify any public investment.”
Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), whose ward includes South Loop nearby, said she wanted to see “more detail on the Ishbia proposal, its impact on the South Loop community and more community engagement on his plan to move the existing rail yard south to the Bridgeport community and near my constituents at Wentworth Gardens.” Dowell has previously been against trying to get two stadiums into her ward at the 78 site.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office said he was briefed Friday on the proposal, and that his office would be “centering” Chicago’s interests in ongoing conversations, but that the city would facilitate the necessary review and approval processes “if this vision moves from concept to development.”
Ald. Nicole Lee (11th), whose ward encompasses the current Sox stadium in Bridgeport, and Cook County Commissioner John Daley said in a joint statement that “any request for tax breaks and TIF dollars in support of this plan should be roundly rejected.” They said that 35-year-old Rate Field, which they noted was built with $137 million in taxpayer dollars, has “plenty of life to give.”
They appealed to team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who remains in control of any stadium decisions, saying they “cannot imagine the current ownership is comfortable with this brash approach.” The Sox are staring down the end of their lease at Rate Field in 2029, with a potential one-year extension.
“To anyone who believes the delusion that this plan would be fully privately financed – we have an empty baseball stadium to sell you,” the two said in the statement. “We strongly support the idea that we must modernize Rate Field and the surrounding area to serve the interests of both the White Sox organization and the community.”
Reinsdorf previously lobbied Springfield to include a Sox stadium at the 78, where the Chicago Fire broke ground earlier this year on a $750 million stadium near Roosevelt and Clark that was fully funded by billionaire owner Joe Mansueto, but relies on a $425 million in tax-increment financing district funding for infrastructure improvements.
But last month, Amtrak announced it was putting more than $600 million in newly awarded Federal Railroad Administration funding toward a new maintenance facility at the current site of a Union Pacific rail yard in Bridgeport, according to an Amtrak statement. Ishbia has put more than $125 million into Canal Edge LLC, which is financing and delivering the new $900 million-facility, where work on the 18-month project is expected to start this fall.
Amtrak has said its current facilities “were designed for a different era and no longer provide the space, configuration, or modern capabilities needed to support today’s fleet or anticipated future growth,” but that its new rail yard “will allow for more efficient servicing of rail cars, reduce service disruptions and turnaround time.” Operations could start as soon as 2027 or 2028.
Lee said the proposal “would drive a knife into the heart of this community, abandoning Bridgeport and sticking us with an empty stadium and 24/7 Amtrak maintenance facility in a residential neighborhood, with no protections against the environmental impacts, not to mention the economic ones.”
And the move has concerned Bridgeport residents who worry about the environmental impact of the project on the area.
Amtrak received a federal “categorical exclusion” for the project, allowing it to move forward without a full environmental assessment or an environmental impact statement “unless there are extraordinary circumstances.”
The company said it will still conduct “standard due-diligence investigations” and adhere to “applicable requirements.”
But residents still worry the new facility could tank property values due to the stadium being uprooted and the sound, smells or health hazards emanating from the train maintenance facility. A petition being circulated by Bridgeport Environmentalists and other local grassroots groups has garnered just shy of 2,500 signatures.
“Our neighborhood is not for sale so some billionaires and millionaires can make money while poisoning us and buying up our homes,” said Maria LaGiglio, a member of the Armour Bridgeport Coalition and resident of the Bridgeport neighborhood. “Where [the Amtrak yard] is now, it’s an industrial corridor. No one is directly impacted, and that’s where it should stay. The 78 is changing the landscape of the area, so they want to capitalize on that, and the residents of Chicago are who suffer.”
Contributing: Mitchell Armentrout
