Bally's Chicago gets green light from Gaming Board to resume construction
The Illinois Gaming Board has given Bally's Chicago the green light to resume building its permanent casino after a two-week stop work order over an unauthorized waste hauler at the River West site.
Construction is expected to start up again Thursday on the planned $1.7 billion casino complex at the former Tribune printing plant site, with a refined vendor vetting process in place, the Rhode Island-based casino company said.
'We were informed today by IGB that construction on the Bally's site will begin on Thursday, May 15th,' Bally's Chairman Soo Kim said in a statement Wednesday. 'We appreciate the collaboration and support of IGB throughout this process and look forward to delivering this project to Chicago.'
Work ground to a halt May 1 after the Gaming Board discovered that the construction project was using an unauthorized subcontracted waste hauler previously alleged to have had ties to organized crime.
D&P Construction, a Melrose Park company that provided dumpsters used at the 30-acre site, was hired by the Chicago Community Builders Collective, a minority-led general contracting partnership constructing the permanent casino complex.
The dumpsters were removed May 2, and following an investigation, the Gaming Board said Wednesday that Bally's Chicago agreed to full vendor disclosure, satisfying the agency's concerns enough to move forward with construction.
'Presently, no vendors are working on the casino construction project without IGB approval,' the Gaming Board said in a statement. 'Bally's addressed the disclosure failures. It has disclosed, and assured the ongoing disclosure of, all proposed vendors to the IGB.'
In 2005, D&P's alleged ties to organized crime were among the factors cited in a Gaming Board investigation that led to the license revocation of the proposed Emerald Casino in Rosemont, where the construction firm did work at the planned casino site.
The license went instead to Rivers Casino Des Plaines, which launched in 2011 and grew to be the state's top-grossing casino.
D&P's involvement in the Bally's Chicago site cost the casino company two weeks of construction time, but not the license to build what will be the largest casino in the state on the sprawling industrial site along the Chicago River.
In May 2022, Rhode Island-based Bally's was selected to build the Chicago casino, besting finalists Rivers Casino and Hard Rock with a proposal that includes an exhibition hall, a 500-room hotel, a 3,000-seat theater, 10 restaurants and 4,000 gaming positions.
Demolition of the Freedom Center printing plant was completed earlier this year. In February, Bally's began driving foundational caissons into the ground, with executives targeting a September 2026 opening for the permanent casino.
Bally's, which has been operating a temporary casino at Medinah Temple since September 2023, was ranked fifth among the state's 16 full casinos with $11 million in adjusted gross receipts last month, according to data from the Gaming Board.
Rivers Casino Des Plaines was once again the state's top casino in April with $43.9 million in adjusted gross receipts, followed by newcomer Wind Creek Chicago Southland, which hit a new high with $17.1 million in revenue, according to Gaming Board data.
Wind Creek, owned by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, launched in its permanent 70,000 square foot casino in south suburban East Hazel Crest in November. Last month, it opened a 255-room hotel.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
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