Editorial: West Loop entertainment district should not come at the cost of historic venues such as Chicago's Uptown Theatre

Chicago Tribune

26-01-2025

In December 2018, the city of Chicago unveiled a $75 million plan for the long-awaited restoration of the Uptown Theatre, a stunning 1925 entertainment venue with an incomparably gorgeous interior that befitted its status as the crown jewel of the Baliban and Katz chain of movie palaces.
Rahm Emanuel, at the time mayor of Chicago, told the Tribune the plan was 'the fulfillment of a promise,' that 'investments in culture are one of our best drivers of economic growth and job creation in our neighborhoods' and that construction was slated to begin in the fall of 2019. The Uptown was supposed to be glittering and open for business by the end of 2021.
The news was celebrated by the scores of volunteers and supporters who had worked tirelessly to guard and save one of Chicago's most significant unrestored historic buildings, a 4,381-seat, 46,000-square-foot colossus that had sat vacant and decaying since a final J. Geils Band concert on Dec. 19, 1981.
Alas, vacant and unrestored the theater at 4816 N. Broadway sits still, even as plans are in the works for a brand new music venue, a huge yet seemingly prosaic shed to be built on a parking lot next to the United Center that has the potential to suck away much of the Uptown's potential sustaining business.
We generally support the so-called 1901 Project, the latest West Loop development hatched by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families, which looks set to create a new, dynamic, walkable neighborhood out of what currently is a bleak sea of surface parking lots and extend the energy of hot restaurants, music venues such as the Salt Shed and the vibrant street life now visible in the West Loop even further west. We admire the private financing and the relatively modest ask from taxpayers in infrastructure support. Moreover, we've long argued that a terrific (and oft-overlooked) tool of neighborhood regeneration is when the crucial urban core radiates out from the city's center, adding private-sector housing and other assets.
But some balance is needed as the epicenter of Chicago's vital entertainment and leisure sectors shifts palpably to the west via the rapid growth in the former meatpacking district. We can't let the city's traditional centers suffer as a result.
This applies to the Loop, home of such huge, historic venues as the Chicago Theatre, Auditorium Theatre and the Lyric Opera House and also to the lakefront neighborhood of Uptown, once an entertainment locus to rival the Loop and still home to multiple historic music venues such as the Aragon Ballroom, Riviera Theatre and the Green Mill.
Uptown is one of Chicago's most diverse communities; it hardly is a place of privilege and one of its most important developmental assets remains underexploited.
Those behind the 1901 Project's concert hall argue that their new venue will expand the marketplace through long-term, Las Vegas-style residencies rather than cannibalize existing venues. Whether such long-term sit-downs will be viable in Chicago remains to be seen. But there are only so many big acts touring and a lot of existing capacity is available at big, challenged theaters such as the Auditorium. A glut of venues in Chicago raises the danger of giving high-priced talent leverage to extract ever-higher bids, raising ticket prices for concertgoers.
The concert business is mostly a for-profit world but the venues themselves are often nonprofit, not just tax-advantaged but also restored with public money. That means Chicagoans have a financial stake in their survival. Yet another issue at work here is that architecturally significant buildings such as the Chicago and the Auditorium are a critical part of the cultural fabric of the entertainment capital of the Midwest.
Anyone who has been inside the Uptown, or who remembers the days when Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Prince and the Grateful Dead played there, understands not just its unique importance in the history of ordinary Chicagoans but its cathedral-like beauty and jaw-dropping scale. (Deadheads of a certain age will recall the band playing the Uptown well over a dozen times from 1978 until its 1981 closure.) Demolishing the Uptown would be unthinkable and future generations would find it unforgivable. Much good work has been done by the Uptown's current owner, Jerry Mickelson, to stabilize the building after many prior years of neglect. But the cost of restoration is only going up; the $75 million figure from 2018 is now well over $100 million and, alas, we fear the Uptown has disappeared again from the center of Chicago's conversation.
The TIF district that supports the Uptown and its immediate surroundings has been extended through 2037, a positive. The owner, local politicians and volunteers all say they are working on a new public-private restoration plan and a viable, likely nonprofit ownership structure.
The grand old palace's 100th birthday arrives this August. There's only one celebration that really matters: construction crews starting to bring one of Chicago's most glorious buildings back to life with an economic roadmap that will benefit the neighborhood and ensure its viability and survival. As eyes increasingly look west for fun and leisure, the Uptown must not be forgotten.