The prospective owner of the White Sox unveiled on Saturday preliminary plans for a new South Loop stadium as part of a massive redevelopment of Amtrak facilities that could also include housing and health care centers.
A company owned by billionaire Justin Ishbia, who has an agreement to buy the White Sox in 2034, shared renderings Saturday of a new ball park that would be built as part of “The Railyards,” a megadevelopment at the 48-acre site of Amtrak’s 14th Street Coach yard, 432 W. 14th St.
The plan would turn Amtrak’s rail yard and maintenance facility into a mixed-use development featuring a riverfront White Sox stadium that would neighbor the Chicago Fire’s new stadium across the Chicago River. The development could also include a new center for Northwestern Medicine.
“The Railyards is about turning idle land into opportunity — for patients who need better access to care, for a team and its fans who deserve a dynamic Riverfront home, and for a city that needs jobs, housing, and economic investment,” Ishbia said in a statement. “This is a Chicago project, built by and for Chicagoans, and we are excited about its potential.”
Renderings show a ball park built in a vintage style with brick facade that abuts the Chicago River, with a riverwalk along its eastern perimeter. A public plaza is show to the park’s north, next to a commercial building that is connected to the stadium via a skybridge.
A mix of other new mid and low-rise buildings at the site will include commercial, retail, health care and residential uses.
To accommodate the project and the White Sox’s relocation, Amtrak would move its maintenance facility to a largely-vacated railyard in Bridgeport adjacent to the current stadium, Rate Field, 333 W. 35th St.
Last month, Canal Edge, Ishbia’s company that is spearheading the South Loop development, invested $125 million into a $900 project moving the Amtrak’s rail yard.
Bridgeport and Chinatown residents have voiced their concerns over the Amtrak deal, arguing that losing their longtime MLB team and gaining a 24-hour maintenance facility in proximity to a largely residential area would cause pollution and hurt future development in the area.
If determined feasible, the project would be brought to current White Sox ownership for consideration as one possible new location after the team’s lease at Rate Field expires. Current White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has already floated a move to the South Loop, with this plan showing a new stadium at the 78 megadevelopment adjacent to The Railyards site.
