Lightfoot Gets a $2 Billion Boost
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REAL ESTATE: Get ready for higher prices and fiercer bidding wars. PAGE 3 NOTABLES: Chicago’s top residential real estate brokers. PAGE15 CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 5, 2021 | $3.50 It was always going to be a tough Lightfoot gets a sell, but now the ghost of Block 37 $2 billion boost looms New federal rescue plan CHICAGO’S SHARE gives city far more than Here’s how much money Chicago received from the three federal it got in prior bailouts spending bills. American Recovery & Reinvestment Act BY A.D. QUIG 2009, $831 billion total $515 million Lori Lightfoot is about to get Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic the biggest windfall any Chicago Security Act mayor has received in modern 2020, $2.2 trillion total memory, if not ever: nearly $2 $1.2 billion billion in federal money, with rel- American Rescue Plan Act atively few strings attached. 2021, $1.9 trillion total How Lightfoot spends the $1.9 billion money will help shape not only the course of Chicago’s COVID Source: Crain’s reporting, Civic Federation recovery, but also the city’s long- term nancial condition and her Perhaps most important to city own political future. E ective al- taxpayers and a mayor expected location of so much money could to face voters again in 2023, the advance Lightfoot’s priorities to federal dollars could ease pres- invest in neighborhoods outside sure for another tax increase. of downtown, reduce poverty “Getting a pile of money? and protect workers, while bol- stering her re-election chances. See WINDFALL on Page 35 Ready to eat out again? JOHN R. BOEHM R. JOHN So is everyone else. Reservations are hard to snag as restaurants endure HOW THE PANDEMIC MADE operating at 50% capacity and vaccinations speed up BY ALLY MAROTTI people are out and about right A BAD SITUATION WORSE now,” says Sunny Mehra, own- Finding restaurant reservations er of Japanese steakhouse Roka is becoming more challenging as Akor, which has Chicago-area lo- diners start venturing out after a cations in River North, Oakbrook AT THE THOMPSON CENTER year of eating mostly at home. and Skokie. “It is overwhelming.” Bookings made at Chicago-ar- As of press time, 15.2 percent of BY DANNY ECKER ea restaurants on OpenTable were Chicago residents have been fully up 48 percent the week of March 1, vaccinated, and 29.8 percent have hen Gov. J.B. Pritzker Two years and one global pan- “IT’S A REAL PUZZLE compared to the rst week of Feb- had one shot. signed a bill allowing demic later, the odds appear long ruary. e increase comes partly As the COVID-19 vaccine roll- W the state to sell the of nding anyone to buy the prop- OF WHAT ONE WOULD from a steady easing of restric- out gains speed, more people feel ompson Center, developers erty anytime soon. tions, but restaurant operators say comfortable dining indoors. It is salivated over the prospect of e state of Illinois this month DO WITH IT, AND the spike in demand is driven by also one of the few options new- overhauling a full city block in the will begin soliciting bids from WHAT IT WOULD COST.” another key component: People ly vaccinated people have for a heart of the Loop as companies want to eat out again. were pouring into downtown. See THOMPSON on Page 35 John Buck, developer “With all of these vaccinations, See RESERVATIONS on Page 34 NEWSPAPER l VOL. 44, NO. 14 l COPYRIGHT 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TECH TAKEAWAY YOUR VIEW Here’s how Immigrant one executive entrepreneurs rode out the can fuel Chicago’s pandemic. recovery. PAGE 6 PAGE 10 2 APRIL 5, 2021 • CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS GREG HINZ ON POLITICS BY GREG HINZ What’s the best approach to aordable housing? undamentally, there are 60 percent of regional median two ways to motivate income. Fpeople and get them to To those who think that do what you want. might be a little rich, consider One is oer rewards, com- the cost of operating con- pensation or outright bribes, ventional public housing. Or aka “the carrot.” e other is consider that the Feigenholtz/ to swat that mule right on the Tarver bill would merely revive hindquarters or threaten to and expand the old Class 9 af- do so, “the stick.” But which fordable tax break that existed is the most eective in that im- under former Cook County portant but somewhat arcane Assessor Jim Houlihan. But aspect of endeavor known there is a problem: Experts say as creating and maintaining the measure would generate aordable housing? only about 15,000 more af- GROUP COSTAR A whole series of bills and fordable units countywide, not The Hilton Chicago Downtown hotel on Michigan Avenue proposals now pending in nearly enough. Springeld and Chicago take Another, similar carrot-style both approaches to the prob- bill would provide rent sub- lem. ere is general agree- sidies by doubling the ling Unpaid property taxes reveal ment that there is a problem. fee for recording a deed to $18 ere’s not nearly enough from $9 now. at’s certainly aordable housing in this less than the direct tax on landlords’ pain during pandemic town or in the suburbs, and real estate sales Lightfoot the situation has only become once pushed (the real estate Outstanding bills illustrate the commercial real estate sector’s woes and give clues worse amid the COVID-19 transfer tax) but still might not pandemic. e question is, provide enough revenue. about which building owners may be giving up their ght to weather the storm which approach ought to Ergo, the Really Big Stick pass? plan, oered by Rep. Will BY DANNY ECKER through Oct. 1. And with those paid either of the past two bills One proposal, from Mayor Guzzardi, D-Chicago, to lift payments still owed, another $1.1 also give some clues about own- Lori Lightfoot, would make the state’s ban on local rent Nearly eight months after bills billion is outstanding for 2020 ers that may be giving up their developers of high-end hous- control laws. Guzzardi insists were due, Cook County is still property tax bills that were due ght to weather the storm and ing downtown and in wealth- locals ought to have the right awaiting close to $200 million of in early March—more than one- hold onto their properties, choos- ier neighborhoods pay a pre- to talk about doing something its commercial property tax col- third of the total amount billed— ing perhaps to let their lenders mium if they need something and wouldn’t necessarily lections for the second half of though property owners can still or other parties deal with them from the city, such as a zoning repeat the mistakes of ocials 2019 as COVID-19 keeps stran- pay those without penalty before down the road. change, a grant, or approval in New York City and San gling economic activity. May 3. Among the prominent down- of a land purchase. Under Francisco, where middle-class According to data from Cook e delinquencies highlight town properties whose owners her new plan, developments housing has all but disap- County Treasurer Maria Pappas, the pain still aicting major have not paid their 2020 bill and covered by the ordinance peared. But his bill has picked landlords have yet to pay about commercial properties more are still delinquent on their 2019 would have to make at least up some momentum. 6 percent of commercial proper- than a year into a pandemic that second installment: the Hilton How much if ty taxes that were originally due has devastated many commer- ANY PLAN COULD EFFECTIVELY BE any of this is going last August, with late fees waived cial landlords. ose that haven’t See TAXES on Page 7 to pass remains UNDONE BY ASSESSOR FRITZ KAEGI. uncertain. e two carrot bills seem to 20 percent of units available have the most backing at the at aordable, below-market moment, as does Lightfoot’s rates, up from 10 percent now. plan to stien requirements And instead of buying their under the city’s aordable way out as they currently can housing ordinance. by contributing to a develop- e irony is that whatever ment fund, builders would passes and whatever good is accomplished could eec- have to provide at least half of wintrust.com/privateclient those aordable units on site, tively be undone by Cook mixing up people of dierent County’s new reform-minded economic backgrounds. assessor, Fritz Kaegi. Not surprisingly, develop- Kaegi has begun reassess- NEW NAME SAME GREAT SERVICE ers are squawking that the ing the county one third at price is so high the market a time, and initial results will die. On the other hand, are that his biggest pro- as my colleague Alby Gal- posed hikes are not on oce lun pointed out, they also buildings or factories or sin- Let us re-introduce ourselves. We’ve renamed our Wintrust Wealth Services group to Wintrust squawked about the original, gle-family homes but for-rent Private Client. We want to make sure you know that we’re dedicated to helping private clients 2015 aordable-housing law, apartments, up a whopping which preceded a construc- 112 percent in northern manage day-to-day finances, strategies for growth, and solutions to protect wealth. With a high- tion boom. Still, should there Cook, far more than any other touch, white glove experience, you’ll work with experts in this space who craft custom solutions be a sti price to get a routine category except for property to meet your individual needs.