Mayor Brandon Johnson said Thursday that the city will provide additional support to restaurants and stores in the Loop, an area that has yet to fully recover from the pandemic.
Six restaurants, including Ceres Café in the Chicago Board of Trade Building and The Roanoke at 135 W. Madison St., will receive up to $250,000 in grants to renovate their storefronts and interiors, and the city will use Small Business Improvement Fund funds. This will be my first time using it. Johnson spoke at the annual meeting of his advocacy group, the Chicago Loop Alliance, to support downtown.
The city will also pay for renovations to the future site of the Downtown Museum, which will display the history of the Board of Commerce. Other Loop companies can apply for a new round of funding in September.
“We’re just getting started,” Johnson told about 400 attendees at the Willis Tower conven.
Most businesses have brought employees back to the office at least a few days a week, and downtown foot traffic has increased 22% since 2022, according to a report from the Chicago Loop Alliance. But Mondays and Fridays could still look sparse, with few customers in street stores and about a quarter of downtown retail space remaining empty.
The mayor, who has recently been battling with downtown business leaders over his “Bring Chicago Home” proposal that would raise taxes on all real estate sales over $1 million, hopes for their support to revive the Loop. He said there was. This spring, the city will establish a new Downtown Advisory Committee, comprised of 40 members from the business and tourism communities, to help develop an updated plan for the central business district.
Johnson noted there has been a lot of good news recently for the Loop business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced on Monday that it would be renovating Chase Tower, its iconic 60-story skyscraper at 10 Dearborn Street, instead of finding new office space for the building’s 7,200 employees. It has been announced that renovation work will begin over the next several years. The move follows Google’s 2022 decision to take over the now-vacant James R. Thompson Center and turn it into a hub for thousands of well-paid tech workers.
“They believe in the promise of this city,” Johnson said. “I’m always happy when people bet on Chicago.”
Google has been working on a major expansion in Chicago because of its highly educated workforce, but was initially reluctant to take over the Helmut Jahn-designed Thompson Center, which had long suffered from heating and cooling problems. Executive Quintin Primo said. Capri Investment Group Chairman said during a question and answer session at Thursday’s meeting.
But Mr. Primo, co-developer of the site with commercial real estate veteran Mike Reschke, took a late-night visit to the 17-story glass-and-steel building and caught a glimpse of its towering atrium. He said he had convinced the people involved.
“Mike and I convinced them that this was indeed a Google-quality building,” Primo said.
Being located above downtown’s busiest transportation hub was also a plus, he added. And while other big-name companies, such as Boeing Co. and Ken Griffin’s hedge fund Citadel, have recently moved their headquarters out of Chicago, Google’s decision will cause an even bigger ripple effect, opening up even more businesses and activities. Should bring it into the loop.
“Chicago’s fundamental strengths are unwavering,” Primo said.
The venture, led by Mr. Primo and Mr. Reschke, is scheduled to begin floor-by-floor intestinal rehabilitation at the Thompson Center later this month, with Google expected to move in by 2026.
The two are also working on redeveloping the former BMO Harris Bank building at 111 West Monroe Street into hundreds of apartments and a hotel as part of the LaSalle Street Reimagining Project. The initiative, launched by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, aims to turn vacant office space in the Financial District into about 1,000 apartments, including hundreds of affordable units.
“We are making big bets and will continue to make big bets on Loop,” Reschke said.
