The city’s broke, the CTA’s broke, but on May 11 the City Council approved plans to build a $213.3 million underground superstation in the Loop–a hub for express trains that someday will run to and from O’Hare and Midway. Nobody pointed out that there’s only enough money on hand to build the superstation. Nobody said where the city would find more money to build the tunnels and miles of new track for the express trains. So now millions of desperately needed dollars are earmarked for a project that may never be completed.
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Last October Mayor Daley proclaimed that the city finally had a winning project for the site. He unveiled a deal in which the Mills Corporation, a Virginia-based developer specializing in enormous shopping malls, will build a six-story upscale shopping center and three towers of residential units and offices. Deep underground, below the existing Red and Blue line tracks, will be the superstation. According to the city, the CTA will pay $130 million of its cost, the city $42.4 million, and the Mills Corporation $40.9 million.
The superstation isn’t even necessary for the development of Block 37. “The project is not contingent upon the station, but it certainly enhances it,” says Rebecca Sullivan, director of public relations for Mills. “I believe the idea came from the city.”
CTA officials concede they have only enough money on hand to build the superstation. But they say the risk is worth taking because they hope to get federal money to complete the project sometime in the future. Yet they have no designs for the rest of the project, no cost estimates, no construction timetables.
