Jim O'Donnell: No 'Bear Down' yet at Arlington Park — now only the squeaky financial lifting

THERE WERE NO SIGNS of burnt orange and blue confetti on Northwest Highway or Euclid Avenue in Arlington Heights Wednesday night.

Nor should there have been.

The Chicago Bears announced that they completed the purchase of the 326 acres of land that once housed Arlington Park from Churchill Downs Inc.

In an open letter to fans, foes, stakeholders and the otherwise curious, the Bears confirmed fulfillment of a $197.2 million agreement initially made public in September 2021.

A team spokesman emphasized that the maneuver in no way guarantees construction of a new multibillion-dollar stadium on the legacied site.

Left unsaid was the reality that the Bears now own leverage in any negotiations over terms of a new stadium and adjacent development with the village of Arlington Heights, the city of Chicago and any other daring municipality that may emerge as events move forward.

THE NINETEEN MONTHS since June 2021 — when the Bears formally announced their bid for the Arlington property — now serve as mere prelude.

That overture is over. The curtain has risen on what is certain to be a civic drama involving markedly dichotomous elements.

Opposite the Bears, the most prominent at this point are some of the taxpaying residents of Arlington Heights and associated school districts.

While a majority of that subset may welcome the Bears to AP, far less want any of their tax money directed toward the team's profitability or any diminishment in funding for schools and public services.

THAT IS A CRITICAL POINT where many of the affected locals appear to be running with less and less dispassionate support from too many local officials.

Those officials — most notably many elected overseers of Arlington Heights and their more higher-salaried appointees — have devolved into cheerleaders for the Bears to Arlington Park.

That's not detached, transparent governance.

That is a blueprint for the establishment of two separate but unequal parts of Arlington Heights — the foundationally matured and the ballyhooed fresh western grid.

One authority on local real estate development Wednesday night estimated that a home currently valued at $650,000 in Arlington Heights will be worth close to $1.3 million on the 220 acres of non-football land at the new AP.

A FLOATING “X” FACTOR remains the city of Chicago.

The nine-candidate mayoral election is Feb. 28. The probable runoff matching the top two finishers will ensue on April 4.

Whether Mayor Lori Lightfoot is reelected, George McCaskey and associates with the Bears will undoubtedly be dealing with a more flexible executive psychology in any attempt to keep the team within city limits.

That reality further lessens any leverage Arlington Heights officials have to deny the Bears any substantive funding or other infrastructure “ask.”

A LOOMING POINT OF PROBABILITY overlooked in the initial aftermath of Wednesday's news is that the Bears not only are paying nothing for the Arlington property but that they may have already turned a profit on lending their brand name to the transfer of the land.

Said David Trandel, the president of Primestone Residential in Chicago and a past principal in the One Arlington Place redevelopment slightly southwest of the longtime racetrack:

“I would be stunned if the Bears don't already have a feed developer who put up the entire ($197.2 million) for the land purchase plus possibly even adding a premium to serve as the lead developer of the remaining acreage.

“Given Neil Bluhm's ongoing interest in the team, I would think Glenstar Properties will emerge as the lead developer.”

Bluhm could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

GLENSTAR WAS FOUNDED in 2004 by Michael Klein and partners. One year later, Bluhm's Walton Street Capital loaned the group $400 million for its first major Loop redevelopment.

In June 2021, almost in perfect sync with the Bears' announcing their bid for the Arlington land, Klein and Glenstar announced a bid of their own.

Informed speculation was that the Glenstar bid was in association with Bluhm. In 2019, Bluhm helped orchestrate the eventual sale of 61% of the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines to Churchill Downs Inc.

That led some to surmise Glenstar was the favorite to wind up buying the Arlington land.

Now, in mildly roundabout fashion, the corporation may still prove to be huge in the redevelopment of the property.

If the Bears partner in the redevelopment of the non-football space at Arlington, it is believed that the franchise's profits will significantly defray stadium construction costs.

THERE HAS ALSO BEEN recurring speculation that the incoming presence of Kevin Warren as new president of the Bears will accelerate the organization's realization of its own stadium.

As previously reported in the Daily Herald, Warren became exec VP/COO of the Minnesota Vikings only after team communications and public affairs VP Lester Bagley mounted a seven-year campaign to get the governor of Minnesota and the state legislature to hop on board a plan to keep the team in Minneapolis.

Along the way, at various points, Bagley and team principal owner Zigi Wilf warned that the Vikings were “looking” at the then-open NFL city of Los Angeles as a response to the more fiscally prudent in Minnesota.

To bring the mayor and balky city councilmen in Minneapolis around, the Vikings were also all but signed, sealed and delivered at one point in Bagley's ministrations to the St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills.

FINALLY, WITH SECOND-YEAR Gov. Mark Dayton helping to bring most in line, ground was broken on the new U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis in late 2013. The Vikings were accountable for approximately 40 percent of the building's $1.1 billion cost.

Almost all of that team investment was reported to be covered by naming rights, personal seat license fees, a loan from an NFL fund and other building ancillaries.

Arden Hills — A.H. — was left in the dust.

A more local A.H. now has some — but only some — taxpayers ardently hoping against that sort of fate.

Maybe it's no wonder there was no confetti near Arlington Park Wednesday night.