Michael Reese Hospital - Planned Use For 2016 Olympics

Planned Use For 2016 Olympics

The Chicago 2016 Olympic organizing committee had advocated a plan to construct the Olympic Village on the Michael Reese site as a reuse project, should Chicago be awarded the Games. The city had originally planned to build an Olympic Village above the truck yards south of McCormick Place, but focused their planning on the Michael Reese campus after the hospital announced its planned closure. Under the new plan, the City would borrow $85 million to buy the Michael Reese Hospital campus from its then owner, Medline Industries. Medline would have received $65 million because the company agreed to make a $32.5 million charitable contribution back to the city. The city would then have used that $20 million to pay up to five years of interest on its $85 million debt, demolish the hospital, and clean up the 37-acre (150,000 m2) site. Then sometime in the next couple years it planned to sell the site for at least $85 million to a developer or developers, who in turn would build a complex big enough to house about 15,000 Olympians. After the games the developer would then sell or rent out the units. Instead, demolition and cleanup costs were projected at $32 million and rising; as a result Medline agreed to raise its charitable contribution to $32.5 million. The site was purchased in early July 2009 for $86 million after Medline agreed to the changes in the contract. However, after Chicago's Olympic Bid failed, the Olympic Village plan was abandoned. The site is currently vacant, with the exception of one small remaining building, and is fenced off and patrolled by security.