We are days away from knowing if the Chicago Bears are likely to put shovels in the ground for a new stadium in 2025, or if their dream stadium plans may once again be delayed. With only a few days before the Illinois General Assembly adjourns from its spring session, the Bears organization will need to push to try and have any public funding approved, or once again sit in limbo.
Over the last couple of months, the Chicago Bears have made a shift from continuing down the path to a new stadium on the lakefront and are now focused on their Arlington Heights property. The plan was always to push for a stadium project in Arlington Heights. The Chicago Bears purchased the property in 2023 with the intention to start planning a mixed-use campus surrounding the new stadium, similar to what the Rams and Chargers have surrounding SoFi Stadium in California.
Unfortunately, the Bears (and prior owner) were hit with an unethical increase in property value by the Cook County Assessor, which led to the initial shift from Arlington Heights back to the city.
No matter where in Illinois the Chicago Bears decide to start building, if they are looking for any state funding, it will require legislative approval. After the General Assembly adjourns, they do not reconvene to pass additional legislation again until the following January. Their fall session is only a couple of weeks long and is to address any vetoes being presented by the Governor. Therefore, if the Bears cannot secure funding before May 31, 2025, they will likely need to wait until 2026 before they can make another attempt at putting shovels in the ground.
Will the Chicago Bears ever break ground on a new stadium?
Now, reports are that the Bears plan to build the stadium itself without government funding. However, they were always going to be looking for help with infrastructure changes. It is possible that the team puts shovels in the ground on the new stadium with some type of backdoor agreement that takes place between the end of the 2025 spring session and the start of the 2026 session, but that seems a little risky. Not to mention, a possible nightmare might be looming.
As mentioned, the previous owner was hit with a massive value increase when Palatine Township was reassessed. Cook County runs on a three-year cycle, and the last reevaluation of property values in Wheeling was in 2022. This was the year the Chicago Bears won the purchase agreement for the property at $197 million, however, the property did not officially close until January 2023. The Assessor unethically increased the value despite the property not being officially closed, and a property tax battle ensued.
An agreement was made between the Chicago Bears and the local school districts within Arlington Heights that vastly reduces the property tax liability for tax years 2024 through 2027, with the potential of extending that freeze through 2030 as long as the Bears commit to the Arlington Heights site. The wildcard, though, seems to continue to be Fritz Kaegi. Palatine Township will likely release its reassessment in July or August, and it will be interesting to see if Kaegi agrees to keep the agreed-upon tax freeze at a 10% level of assessment.
With how Kaegi handled the first go-around in 2022, I would not feel confident that he would not try to unethically cause problems once again. The good news is that even if the Cook County Assessor continues to play tricks with the assessment value of the property, the Bears could once again appeal to the Board of Review and continue that appeal either in court or with the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board.