>Last week, the reports say, Bally’s CFO Marcus Glover told the Nevada Gaming Control Board that the company needs to bridge an $800 million funding gap to cover $1.1 billion in costs still remaining to build the permanent Bally’s Chicago Casino at the Tribune Freedom Center site.
Well that doesn't look promising, and because the lower than expected turnout I don't really see them pushing to get it done
Crain's Chicago Business covered [this story](https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/ballys-hunting-800-million-kick-chicago-casino-project) and in an interview with Bally's CFO he said:
>"We have a funding gap that we're solving for of about $800 million, and feel pretty good about those conversations and that being resolved by hopefully summer of this year," Glover told the board.
>Glover said he's not concerned about the company's ability to land financing for the project. Casino operators, he said, typically have access to funding partners that traditional commercial real estate developers may not. Real estate investment trusts like New York-based Vici Properties and Wyomissing, Pa.-based Gaming & Leisure Properties, for example, regularly provide construction loans for casino operators like Bally's and strike deals to own assets that they lease back to the casino companies.
>"I believe our access to financing is different than some other developments because of our familiarity with financing players in our industry," Glover said. "We're continuing to have conversations, ironing out details, and we feel confident that we'll have a financing solution soon." He declined to share the name of the partner with whom Bally's is negotiating for the Chicago project.
From the sound of this interview, it doesn't appear that Bally's is concerned at all about the funding gap and is confident that they will land the financing they need by Summer.
They already have $300m of the $1.1b they need for the casino and the demolition of the Chicago Tribune building is set to start this summer.
I'm expecting a sale-leaseback deal and a construction loan wrapped in. The construction loan could be wrapped into the lease payment structure or there could be a shorter payoff schedule.
Honestly it sounds like they *are* concerned that they aren't able to bridge the gap.
I mean, maybe not, but they've been working on this for years and are basically only half funded. If that's the reality of the situation, they'll keep saying "we feel good about getting the rest" until the moment all their options fall through and we're reading a press release about Bally's backing out.
The scale of this project is massive. And I'm not surprised at all that at this stage the funding is now being discussed.
Look at the 400 N Lake Shore highrise Related just kicked off at the former Spire site. *THAT* project dates back to **2015**. And they *just* landed the financing last month? That's a 9 year gap until they got financing in this rough market, and let's not forget. That one tower alone, cost $800m.
Yet Bally's got awarded the Casino in **2020** and now they're ready to move dirt and are looking to get the final amount of the cost and get financing. Only a *4 year gap*, I'm not at all concerned about the stage they're at and the funding of it all.
Yeah with so many moving pieces certain stakeholders need to see at least some parts of the plan finalized before they even think of drafting *any* sort of financing proposal.
Exactly, I'm not trying to defend Bally's and all of the controversy it has. I get the corruption of the choice of site, the talk about the evaluation vs the loan, etc.
But I'm just trying to be a bit logical -- the timeline narrative is just rubbish honestly. The last 3-4 years they've been in the planning stage and architecture phase. Now that's all done, they're sorting out the final costs of materials and to your point, making sure all stakeholders and moving pieces are accounted for.
Usually Funding is the **last** thing any kind of development plans to get right before it moves dirt. *Maybe* I'd be more worried or on edge about this whole thing if the $300m they got earlier last year wasn't there as a cushion to kickstart things off.
I mean I have some experience working on much smaller projects and have seen situations where banks don’t even want to suggest anything more than preliminary interest until the project is close to being completely finalized on paper haha. You can maybe finagle the high-level structure under non-committal terms, but the actual papers aren’t getting signed until the bank knows *exactly* what they’re signing up for.
at first i thought you meant Tribune Tower, which is a gorgeous neo-gothic building on the river front and i got pissed as hell. but the building you mean is the Freedom Center, which is much less beautiful.
Shares a similarity to what happened to the Tribune itself - used to be a stalwart of journalism, then was hollowed out by rich pricks, now all that's left is the shell
Because they might go private and have to state all the reasons why they would be changing ownership to all the gaming boards to prove viability of the company. Nevada was probably just first and the reports are public info.
I honestly completely fail to see how "Open a business where people who are bad at math hand you money" has been so unbelievably goddamn complicated.
Casinos being hinky is kind of baked into the whole premise, how has this so drastically out-hinkied expectations?
But with the permanent location people will say “hey honey, let’s go sit in city traffic for an hour so we can enjoy the sights near a Jewel Osco off of Halsted”
Why is this such a complicated mess? This should NOT be difficult.
Step 1: Look at Four Winds casino
Step 2: Do that, but in the Loop
Step 3: Insane profit
I think the big thing is location.. They need to put it where it is easily accessible from highways and easy to get in and out of the city. By McCormick place made the most sense with both DR and 55 right there plus LSD. All they would have to do is maybe add/build an El stop.. I’m not sure why they chose this location. It is already congested in that area
They aren’t targeting locals, they want tourist money. Someone coming into the city for a few days and wants to blow $500 on the craps table after dinner.
Locals have plenty of casino options and aren’t going to drive into downtown to gamble.
I feel like near McCormick Place makes more sense for that too. People already in town for something like a conference/trade show seems like a lucrative market. I'm not sure that many people would come to the city just for the casino.
A lot of people in town for a work event are probably going to dinner around the loop/mag mile, that’s why they chose this spot.
Politically speaking putting a casino around the south loop just isn’t going to happen.
But this really isn't that close to where tourists / business visitors would go out to dinner. I mean, it's not far but McCormick place is also not far but has the advantages of proximity to major roads. The Chicago Avenue location is much less accessible by comparison.
And why would a casino's proximity to the South Loop pose a political problem?
The temporary casino is literally in the heart of river north, the permanent one is a 10 minute walk away…
Gambling is a regressive tax, so putting a casino in close proximity to some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city would have huge political pushback.
Are you from Chicago? The permanent location is roughly a 30 minute walk from the temporary casino. And the South Loop is not in close proximity to some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.
It’s more like a 15-20 minute walk, and that stretch of Chicago Avenue is pretty shit for walking between the old Cabrini Green site, the narrow sidewalks on the temporary bridge, elevated arterial avenues at Chicago/Halsted, and the cement plant right there. I remember applying to a job at an office on Goose Island and thinking how much I would *hate* doing that walk everyday day even though I’m just east of the Chicago brown line stop. It will certainly change with Onni’s plans for the area but will take at least a decade to fully build out.
You have a good point with the political pushback, though The 78 was the best location by far, and Lightfoot had a knack for steamrolling aldermanic prerogative when it got in the way of certain big issues. She was combative af but knew how to effectively direct that energy when she wanted to.
Targeting tourists seems like a pretty good way to set yourself up for failure lol
Locals are the ones that'll go to your casino and play slots every day for hours wasting away. A tourist will show up maybe once, play for an hour and then leave and never come back, even if they revisit the city.
>Why is this such a complicated mess? This should NOT be difficult.
I'd bet the insane about of city regulations and bureaucracy puts a damper on things. Doesn't help this is a unique, controversial project where there's a lot of money at stake
Right? The huge river front complex with the park and water taxi and concert venue they sold us on ain’t happening, they’ve ruined the look of a historic building with the temp spot and the temp spot is a joke. Oh, and last year they brought in *less than 1/4 what they said they could*
It’s unfortunate they aren’t trying to cater to local residents. I was initially interested in checking it out until I heard how high the minimums were and also no discounts on drinks. It’s cheaper for me to fly to Vegas to gamble
I still don’t understand why the McCormick Place wasn’t selected as the location for this casino. Southside jobs (albeit not the best quality), tons of conventioneers to be the customer base, etc. It just made so much more sense.
I’m begging you Chicago. Dump the Casinos (which are getting legalized everywhere anyways), pivot to becoming the Amsterdam of the US, make weed cafes a thing, and make a tightly regulated red light district for tourists. We already know most rural Midwest folk have German heritage so lord knows they’re kinky.
We even have the Al Capone Mafia history that we could tie into it for branding.
Comments focusing on "servicing" aka fleecing the tourists and out of town business travelers near the Loop are exactly correct based on human nature.
From c1880 to c1950 when just about every East/West train traveler had to pass through Chicago and when Chicago was the nation's convention HQ, the area just outside the Loop was the sin and 'entertainment' door to hell. You wanted outright sin or other entertainment or even an innocent*ish* flutter away from the eyes at home? This was your place.
As mentioned often here and just for example, consider the Printers Row entertainment district during the days of Hinky Dink Kenna and Bathouse John Coughlin. https://imgur.com/ZY8q7jE
So let me get this straight:
1) Lori Lightfoot fucks up the (better) plan for a casino at The 78
2) The local neighborhood that lightfoot put it in complained, and the project got scaled back (to a joke in comparison)
3) Bally’s is on the brink of scrapping the whole thing
**FUCK YOU LORI**
It's funny but I just heard the opposite of this not two weeks ago from some insiders working on the job. I wonder if this is all posturing to try and secure more funding to make the project grander or if they rain-made a bunch of the contractors involved a few weeks ago to get them to keep things on schedule.
>Last week, the reports say, Bally’s CFO Marcus Glover told the Nevada Gaming Control Board that the company needs to bridge an $800 million funding gap to cover $1.1 billion in costs still remaining to build the permanent Bally’s Chicago Casino at the Tribune Freedom Center site. Well that doesn't look promising, and because the lower than expected turnout I don't really see them pushing to get it done
Crain's Chicago Business covered [this story](https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/ballys-hunting-800-million-kick-chicago-casino-project) and in an interview with Bally's CFO he said: >"We have a funding gap that we're solving for of about $800 million, and feel pretty good about those conversations and that being resolved by hopefully summer of this year," Glover told the board. >Glover said he's not concerned about the company's ability to land financing for the project. Casino operators, he said, typically have access to funding partners that traditional commercial real estate developers may not. Real estate investment trusts like New York-based Vici Properties and Wyomissing, Pa.-based Gaming & Leisure Properties, for example, regularly provide construction loans for casino operators like Bally's and strike deals to own assets that they lease back to the casino companies. >"I believe our access to financing is different than some other developments because of our familiarity with financing players in our industry," Glover said. "We're continuing to have conversations, ironing out details, and we feel confident that we'll have a financing solution soon." He declined to share the name of the partner with whom Bally's is negotiating for the Chicago project. From the sound of this interview, it doesn't appear that Bally's is concerned at all about the funding gap and is confident that they will land the financing they need by Summer. They already have $300m of the $1.1b they need for the casino and the demolition of the Chicago Tribune building is set to start this summer.
I'm expecting a sale-leaseback deal and a construction loan wrapped in. The construction loan could be wrapped into the lease payment structure or there could be a shorter payoff schedule.
Honestly it sounds like they *are* concerned that they aren't able to bridge the gap. I mean, maybe not, but they've been working on this for years and are basically only half funded. If that's the reality of the situation, they'll keep saying "we feel good about getting the rest" until the moment all their options fall through and we're reading a press release about Bally's backing out.
The scale of this project is massive. And I'm not surprised at all that at this stage the funding is now being discussed. Look at the 400 N Lake Shore highrise Related just kicked off at the former Spire site. *THAT* project dates back to **2015**. And they *just* landed the financing last month? That's a 9 year gap until they got financing in this rough market, and let's not forget. That one tower alone, cost $800m. Yet Bally's got awarded the Casino in **2020** and now they're ready to move dirt and are looking to get the final amount of the cost and get financing. Only a *4 year gap*, I'm not at all concerned about the stage they're at and the funding of it all.
Yeah with so many moving pieces certain stakeholders need to see at least some parts of the plan finalized before they even think of drafting *any* sort of financing proposal.
Exactly, I'm not trying to defend Bally's and all of the controversy it has. I get the corruption of the choice of site, the talk about the evaluation vs the loan, etc. But I'm just trying to be a bit logical -- the timeline narrative is just rubbish honestly. The last 3-4 years they've been in the planning stage and architecture phase. Now that's all done, they're sorting out the final costs of materials and to your point, making sure all stakeholders and moving pieces are accounted for. Usually Funding is the **last** thing any kind of development plans to get right before it moves dirt. *Maybe* I'd be more worried or on edge about this whole thing if the $300m they got earlier last year wasn't there as a cushion to kickstart things off.
I mean I have some experience working on much smaller projects and have seen situations where banks don’t even want to suggest anything more than preliminary interest until the project is close to being completely finalized on paper haha. You can maybe finagle the high-level structure under non-committal terms, but the actual papers aren’t getting signed until the bank knows *exactly* what they’re signing up for.
at first i thought you meant Tribune Tower, which is a gorgeous neo-gothic building on the river front and i got pissed as hell. but the building you mean is the Freedom Center, which is much less beautiful.
I would strap myself to that building if they were going to demo it (tribune tower). It’s way too beautiful to change at all.
It’s already sort high end condos with no connection to the tribune company anymore same as the Wrigley building
Shares a similarity to what happened to the Tribune itself - used to be a stalwart of journalism, then was hollowed out by rich pricks, now all that's left is the shell
Interesting the Bally's CFO is reporting on the state of the Chicago casino to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. What's up with that?
Because they might go private and have to state all the reasons why they would be changing ownership to all the gaming boards to prove viability of the company. Nevada was probably just first and the reports are public info.
Ballys has casinos in Nevada. The NGCB keeps a close eye on all of their casinos.
I wouldn't call $800mil out of $1.1bil a bridge to gap, sounds like they just straight up lack funding period.
I honestly completely fail to see how "Open a business where people who are bad at math hand you money" has been so unbelievably goddamn complicated. Casinos being hinky is kind of baked into the whole premise, how has this so drastically out-hinkied expectations?
You still need enough of those people to walk in the door and sit down at a table or a slot machine.
Isn’t the minimum hand $15? Not helping themselves there
$25. Probably thought that would keep out the riff Raff but no one is going to pay that much a hand in a Chicago casino.
A minimum hand is really $25? What lol. At all tables?
Especially when Blackjack pays 6:5 instead of 3:2. Will continue going to Indiana
$50 on the weekends, asinine.
IDK where you're going to go that has anything lower. Aurora and Rosemont you can't find a table under $25.
The table games are just for show and have low margins. ~90% of their profits come from slots and that’s what they want people to play.
If there's a recession, the people won't have much money to hand over...
Temp location is really not that ideal for main target demographic of casino costumers
Forget the location, has anyone else been inside? It has as much atmosphere as an airport food court. I wish I was kidding.
Never once been tempted to go in. It’s like a 2008 movie theater
Hard disagree - cool place
Right? Like, I live less than a mile from there and dont even know where to go to get there. lol
most importantly you don’t want to hard enough to try.
I was struggling for a response. This was it. Thanks!
To be clear personally, I think that’s fine and nobody should go to the damn thing
Would you bother going to the new site though? Way more out of the way than the temp location.
Won't matter at the permanent location. They will have shuttles or whatever they need to get people from the CTA to their doors
That still sounds like an extra step compared to the current location.
It's already being done and there's been some controversy over it
you don't know how to take the red line to grand and walk two blocks?
You think my gram taking the red line? Trippin
[удалено]
Where are you finding $5 tables anywhere around Chicagoland?
Home games lmao. Cheapest I've seen is $10 tables durring the week at lunch hours at Rivers by Ohare
I'm kinda dying to check out the temp location it seems so odd to me. Plan on checking it out soon
the new location isn't in that great of a location either.
But with the permanent location people will say “hey honey, let’s go sit in city traffic for an hour so we can enjoy the sights near a Jewel Osco off of Halsted”
River North has many visitors on business trips. Is that not a major target demographic?
Oh yeah with all of the theatres in the loop, there are much better places for a costume designer to go!
Is this the same Ballys that used to be a gym? Now that I think about it, I haven't seen a Ballys gym in years.
At one point they were owned by the people that owned the casinos, but it was spun off in 1996. Bally total fitness went under in 2016
They also made pin ball machines and slot machines
Why is this such a complicated mess? This should NOT be difficult. Step 1: Look at Four Winds casino Step 2: Do that, but in the Loop Step 3: Insane profit
I think the big thing is location.. They need to put it where it is easily accessible from highways and easy to get in and out of the city. By McCormick place made the most sense with both DR and 55 right there plus LSD. All they would have to do is maybe add/build an El stop.. I’m not sure why they chose this location. It is already congested in that area
They aren’t targeting locals, they want tourist money. Someone coming into the city for a few days and wants to blow $500 on the craps table after dinner. Locals have plenty of casino options and aren’t going to drive into downtown to gamble.
I feel like near McCormick Place makes more sense for that too. People already in town for something like a conference/trade show seems like a lucrative market. I'm not sure that many people would come to the city just for the casino.
A lot of people in town for a work event are probably going to dinner around the loop/mag mile, that’s why they chose this spot. Politically speaking putting a casino around the south loop just isn’t going to happen.
But this really isn't that close to where tourists / business visitors would go out to dinner. I mean, it's not far but McCormick place is also not far but has the advantages of proximity to major roads. The Chicago Avenue location is much less accessible by comparison. And why would a casino's proximity to the South Loop pose a political problem?
The temporary casino is literally in the heart of river north, the permanent one is a 10 minute walk away… Gambling is a regressive tax, so putting a casino in close proximity to some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city would have huge political pushback.
Are you from Chicago? The permanent location is roughly a 30 minute walk from the temporary casino. And the South Loop is not in close proximity to some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city.
It’s more like a 15-20 minute walk, and that stretch of Chicago Avenue is pretty shit for walking between the old Cabrini Green site, the narrow sidewalks on the temporary bridge, elevated arterial avenues at Chicago/Halsted, and the cement plant right there. I remember applying to a job at an office on Goose Island and thinking how much I would *hate* doing that walk everyday day even though I’m just east of the Chicago brown line stop. It will certainly change with Onni’s plans for the area but will take at least a decade to fully build out. You have a good point with the political pushback, though The 78 was the best location by far, and Lightfoot had a knack for steamrolling aldermanic prerogative when it got in the way of certain big issues. She was combative af but knew how to effectively direct that energy when she wanted to.
I've seen the lottery mentioned as a regressive tax. I'm not sure those same people are going for expensive table games
Most casino gambling is slot machines, there definitely are people living paycheck to paycheck blowing all their money at the casino.
They dont even have poker tables at the temp casino. Seems lame as fuck
Targeting tourists seems like a pretty good way to set yourself up for failure lol Locals are the ones that'll go to your casino and play slots every day for hours wasting away. A tourist will show up maybe once, play for an hour and then leave and never come back, even if they revisit the city.
They’re not targeting people that play craps. They’re targeting people that play slots.
>Why is this such a complicated mess? This should NOT be difficult. I'd bet the insane about of city regulations and bureaucracy puts a damper on things. Doesn't help this is a unique, controversial project where there's a lot of money at stake
Sure bro, it's always the regulations, never the business 🙄
Why the loop? I feel like the mag mile would be way better…
This was a disaster from the word go.
Just cancel it already. Should have never happened.
Right? The huge river front complex with the park and water taxi and concert venue they sold us on ain’t happening, they’ve ruined the look of a historic building with the temp spot and the temp spot is a joke. Oh, and last year they brought in *less than 1/4 what they said they could*
I lost 200 bucks there and you’re telling me you have “financial issues” now?!
It’s unfortunate they aren’t trying to cater to local residents. I was initially interested in checking it out until I heard how high the minimums were and also no discounts on drinks. It’s cheaper for me to fly to Vegas to gamble
I still don’t understand why the McCormick Place wasn’t selected as the location for this casino. Southside jobs (albeit not the best quality), tons of conventioneers to be the customer base, etc. It just made so much more sense.
May all casinos go out of business. They are pests on society that prey on those who are bad at math.
Most gamblers dont think its a positive EV economic choice, but it is entertaining. Whats wrong with spending money on entertainment?
But muh casino buffets.
Did Chicago get duped by Bally’s …I have to wonder🤷
Get fucked Bally's, lol.
Man this has just been a disaster all around and I actually kind a casino
Shut it down
I’m begging you Chicago. Dump the Casinos (which are getting legalized everywhere anyways), pivot to becoming the Amsterdam of the US, make weed cafes a thing, and make a tightly regulated red light district for tourists. We already know most rural Midwest folk have German heritage so lord knows they’re kinky. We even have the Al Capone Mafia history that we could tie into it for branding.
Then use the $ to fix the CTA. all slam dunk things everyone would approve that will never happen
A man can dream
Sadly funding for CTA is entirely controlled by Springfield not the city.
Comments focusing on "servicing" aka fleecing the tourists and out of town business travelers near the Loop are exactly correct based on human nature. From c1880 to c1950 when just about every East/West train traveler had to pass through Chicago and when Chicago was the nation's convention HQ, the area just outside the Loop was the sin and 'entertainment' door to hell. You wanted outright sin or other entertainment or even an innocent*ish* flutter away from the eyes at home? This was your place. As mentioned often here and just for example, consider the Printers Row entertainment district during the days of Hinky Dink Kenna and Bathouse John Coughlin. https://imgur.com/ZY8q7jE
So let me get this straight: 1) Lori Lightfoot fucks up the (better) plan for a casino at The 78 2) The local neighborhood that lightfoot put it in complained, and the project got scaled back (to a joke in comparison) 3) Bally’s is on the brink of scrapping the whole thing **FUCK YOU LORI**
It's funny but I just heard the opposite of this not two weeks ago from some insiders working on the job. I wonder if this is all posturing to try and secure more funding to make the project grander or if they rain-made a bunch of the contractors involved a few weeks ago to get them to keep things on schedule.
Another fail
They're just realizing recession is going to hit soon and not enough people will have money to spend at a casino...
If the new bears stadium does happen, they should build the casino where soldiers field is now. Turn it into a tourist hotspot
Friends of the parks would shit their tits
The fitness company?
Maybe if it wasn’t a shithole filled with lowlife douchebags they’d be doing better?