Stein remembers getting involved in helping revitalize Chicago's Navy Pier, which during the Harold Washington regime in the 1980s, was nothing more than a mostly abandoned wharf jutting into Lake Michigan. An Urban Land Institute panel also got involved, though, studying the development potential of the area.
"Five months later, the mayor and the governor found $150 million," Stein told a recent ULI breakfast meeting.
Like its neighbor to the north, Kenosha, WI, this city also had an Urban Land Institute panel in to study its Downtown and lakefront, the latter long prevented from development by railroad tracks and mostly abandoned industrial uses that has left environmental scar tissue. City officials note, however, their project involves much more land than Kenosha's redeveloped waterfront.
Waukegan aldermen recently passed a one-cent sales tax to pay for lakefront redevelopment, retire debt incurred by the Genesee Theater and renovate city streets. They also have put out a call to developers and land use planners for proposals charting the course for Downtown and the city's lakefront.
One plan that has been percolating for more than a year has been a $100-million lakefront casino and hotel development, which would be located at the end of Belvidere Road. Ludwig & Co. has an option on land there.
Stein, senior managing director of Mesirow Stein Real Estate, Inc., has rights to develop a casino, which could be flexed if a Rosemont deal fails and if his team can beat out a competing Lake County entity hoping to land a license for Fox Lake.
A deal that would allow MGM Mirage Inc. to buy a license from Emerald Casino Inc. for a Rosemont, IL-based casino has stalled, but the state's 10th license is considered a good bet to land in that northwest suburb, relocating from East Dubuque, IL.
The state law allowing casinos attempted to target cities in need of an economic stimulus and limited them to riverboats, making Aurora, Elgin and Joliet, which like Waukegan are all former bustling industrial communities about 40 miles from Chicago, instant winners. Lakefront casinos were not allowed, Stein says, in part to keep Chicago out of play.
"Waukegan was unjustly prohibited from competing for the 10 licenses," says Stein, adding economic need won't be difficult to prove. "Waukegan is down on its knees. It has a long way to go, too, because it doesn't have a major employer."
It also does have a river, Stein notes, though he admits its "one you can spit across."
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