groundbreaking starts – Construction has begun on the $7 billion privately funded 1901 Project around the United Center, a redevelopment meant to replace decades of surface parking lots with a mixed-use district, 1,900 affordable housing units, a 6,000-seat music hall, and job growth
By Wednesday morning, the ground around the United Center didn’t look like a future mixed-use district. It looked like what leaders have long called a “sea of parking lots,” much of it sitting unused. Then the Wirtz and Reinsdorf families and city officials gathered anyway for the groundbreaking of the $7 billion 1901 Project—framing it as a shift in how the West Side is built.
Under a ceremony that included United Center CEO Terry Savarise. Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle. Mayor Brandon Johnson. and Ald. Walter “Red” Burnett (27th). the project’s owners described an ambitious. multiphase plan aimed at transforming more than 55 acres of vacant parking lots into a district with restaurants. retail. entertainment and community space.
The scale is meant to be felt quickly, in jobs as well as buildings. The project is expected to create an estimated 2,400 construction jobs and thousands of permanent jobs over its lifetime.
For residents, housing is part of the promise baked into the plan. Leaders said the development includes 1,309 total hotel rooms and residences that will include 1,900 affordable units. “Today is not simply about breaking ground on a development project,” Johnson said at the ceremony. “It’s about fulfilling the promise that every neighborhood deserves investment. every family deserves opportunity and no community should ever be left behind—and the promise that communities that have waited for far too long for meaningful investment will not be left behind.”.
The first phase is anchored by a 6,000-seat music hall that will annually host 150 events. Phase one also includes a 180-key hotel, retail space, and two parking garages, along with rooftop green space. Infrastructure improvements are also planned, including bike lines and enhanced pedestrian walkways.
The project’s timeline has moved relatively fast by Chicago sports-development standards. United Center’s leaders unveiled the 1901 Project in July 2024. In February 2025, it was unanimously approved by the City Council. In May, the council approved a $54.7 million property tax break for the project’s first phase.
That tax break runs through Cook County’s Class 7b special assessment. Under that structure. the project’s property tax rate for phase one will be 10% for the first 10 years. 15% for year 11. and 20% for year 12. The Class 7b incentives apply to projects valued at $2 million or more. The 1901 Project’s first phase is valued at $500 million.
Johnson has defended the United Center subsidy. arguing the plan’s focus on arts. culture and community will turn the site into an economic engine for the city and for nearby residents. “This is an investment that will create jobs and housing. attract new businesses. generate economic activity and help ensure that the benefits of growth reach the residents and families who call the West Side home. ” he said.
Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright described the plan as an “inclusionary approach” to development. The United Center’s owners have emphasized hiring locally for construction jobs. and a nonprofit called the 1901 Community Implementation Committee was created to bring community members into the effort and provide skills needed to become subcontractors on the project.
The committee is tied to a loss that landed close to the project’s start. Jerry Lewis. 67. executive director of the 1901 Community Implementation Committee. was killed in an apparent assassination attempt in March outside the nonprofit’s office at 2127 W. Madison St., near the United Center. Burnett said Lewis deserves recognition for the role he played in shaping the community and the 1901 Project.
“Jerry believed deeply in the power of community,” Burnett said. “He believed that the development should create opportunity for those who already live here. His passing was a tremendous loss. but his vision and his values are embedded in this project. and his legacy will live on in what we create here together.”.
The plan did not arrive overnight. The master plan for the land around the United Center comes after five years of planning. Savarise previously said. and it was stewarded by White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and the late Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz. who died in 2023. Some pieces of the plan are still coming together. Boatright said a Pink Line station on Paulina Street is becoming “closer to a reality. ” with conversations between the project team and the city progressing.
Blackhawks Chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz spoke to the goal of changing what has been contained inside the arena’s walls for years. He said the energy at the United Center is “unlike anything we see in the city. ” but it has been confined within the arena. The 1901 Project, he said, will remove that vacuum and bring more energy and investment to the West Side.
“This project is … a commitment to the people who’ve been here all along,” Wirtz said. “That energy and investment flowing into this campus now flows through the neighborhood and not just around it. We are building with this community and not just near it.”
United Center 1901 Project Wirtz family Reinsdorf family Brandon Johnson Walter “Red” Burnett Ciere Boatright Toni Preckwinkle affordable housing music hall Pink Line L station Class 7b property tax break