Chicago Construction News staff writer
Chicago City Council has approved up to $424.9 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for public infrastructure improvements tied to The 78, the massive 62-acre redevelopment project on the Near South Side.
The approved amendment to the project’s public infrastructure agreement will reimburse developer Roosevelt/Clark Partners LLC, led by Related Midwest, for eligible construction costs, including street improvements, transit upgrades, public spaces and a city-owned parking structure.
The TIF funding will support portions of LaSalle, 13th, 14th and 15th streets, improvements along Wells Street, Clark Street and Roosevelt Road, upgrades to on-site Metra tracks, river wall improvements along the South Branch of the Chicago River, an approximately 1,200-space underground parking garage, and publicly accessible open space.
Funding will come from the Roosevelt/Clark TIF district, including transferred funds from the Canal/Congress TIF district. Developer reimbursements will be issued as construction phases are completed.
The revised agreement follows City Council’s approval in September 2025 of an updated plan for The 78, which includes a privately financed 22,000-seat Chicago Fire soccer stadium that broke ground this spring.
The previous infrastructure agreement, approved in 2019 and amended in 2022, provided up to $453.7 million in TIF-funded reimbursements.
The $8 billion development is planned to include up to 10,000 residential units, along with retail, office and institutional space. The site, which had been vacant for roughly five decades, was formerly used as a rail yard.
SOM (Skitmore, Owings & Merrill desgined the overall 62-acre master plan, establishing the framework for streets, riverfront access, open space and building massing. As well, Populus designed the Chicago Fire FC stadium, OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture and Jacobs designed the8-story Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) Innovtion Hub for the University of Illinois System.
In other business, city council also approved the construction of 14 multi-unit residential buildings in East Garfield Park and McKinley Park through the city’s Missing Middle housing initiative.
The projects, backed by city land sales and financial assistance, will create 40 market-rate housing units and represent a combined $15 million in investment by two minority-led development teams.
In East Garfield Park, Citizens Building a Better Community will invest $10.6 million to replace four vacant lots with six three-flats and three four-flats. The project will include properties on the 300 block of South Homan Avenue, the 3300 block of West Gladys Avenue, and the 3500 blocks of West Adams Street and West Jackson Boulevard.
The city-owned parcels, covering 0.63 acres and valued collectively at $104,100, will be sold to the developer for $1 each.
In McKinley Park, M3 Chicago will invest $4.4 million to build five two-flats on the 2400 block of West 34th Place. The five vacant lots total 0.34 acres and have a combined value of $119,620. They will also be sold for $1.
The city will provide $150,000 per unit in assistance to help ensure homes are priced in line with neighborhood buying power.
The Missing Middle program aims to redevelop vacant city-owned lots with smaller-scale housing types that have declined in many Chicago neighborhoods due to decades of disinvestment.
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