Want to Spend a November Night on the Soldier Field Concourse?

Covenant House Illinois is running its Sleep Out at Soldier Field on Thursday, November 19, and it is exactly what it sounds like. You bring a sleeping bag, you spend the night outdoors on the Miller Lite Midway concourse, and you raise money for shelter, meals, school and job training for kids who do not have any of that.

It is open to regular people, not only corporate teams, though corporate teams are clearly who the pitch is built for. Covenant House says the November round runs at six venues nationally, including Yankee Stadium and Gillette Stadium, and should bring in more than $16 million.

Two things we could not find out for you: whether there is a fundraising minimum to sign up, and whether there is a registration deadline. Both live on the national registration site, so check before you commit your Thursday night.

We have thoughts about November on the lakefront. Nobody sleeping out there is confused about that, which is more or less the point.

Anybody down here done one before? Tell us how cold cold gets.

Source credit: Covenant House Illinois and Covenant House International's own announcement. We found the story via Block Club Chicago.

Reserv's License Hearing Is Tomorrow (Friday Sept 17th)

Marking your calendar on one we have been following. The hearing on whether Reserv keeps its liquor license is set for Friday, September 18.

The catch-up, if you missed it: after the latest incident at 744 S. Dearborn, the city ordered the bar to stop playing live music and stop charging people to get in. CBS Chicago reported that the local alderman's recommendation is that the license be revoked. The owner told CBS that the bar is something other than that one night.

We do not have a dog in this fight, and we have heard from neighbors on both sides of it. What we will say is that 744 S. Dearborn is a storefront on a block that does not have storefronts to spare. 

Friday, then.

If you live on Dearborn, what do you actually want to happen here? We are curious whether the comments split the way we think they will.

Source credit: CBS Chicago, with earlier reporting from Block Club Chicago.

The Company That Closed X-Sport Gym Is Finally Opening a Nicer One in the Same Space

819 S. State, the 2nd floor gym space with an entrance at the base of the condo building (seen in the picture) is going to be a gym again.

Club Studio is moving in. What Now Chicago found the listing, and Mr. South Loop, who has had his eye on that storefront since last fall, says the same thing. Construction has started. No opening date yet.

Here is the part that got us. Club Studio is a Fitness International brand, and Fitness International owns LA Fitness. XSport had that space for years and closed not long after its chain got folded into LA Fitness. So by a circuitous route, the company that emptied the space is the company filling it back up, this time with a Pilates reformer studio, cryotherapy and cardio trampolines.

We are not complaining. That is a big dark retail space on a block that needs people walking past it.

Source credit: Reporting from What Now Chicago and Mr. South Loop.

Three Belugas Have Died at the Shedd in Two Weeks

As a follow-up from our post last week, it's sad to say that three beluga whales have died at the Shedd in about two weeks, and two of them died on the same day.

Rain, a 20 year old female who came down from Marineland in Canada in mid August, and Beethoven, a 34 year old male from the Shedd's own resident pod, both died Wednesday. Peekachu, 23, also a Marineland rescue, died about a week before that.

If you have not been following: Marineland shut down, and ten of its belugas were moved here across three trips, the last one on September 1. The Shedd says it will take time to get concrete answers about what led to the deaths, and that it is watching the rest of the pod around the clock.

Not everybody is willing to wait for the answers. Lori Marino of the Whale Sanctuary Project called the three deaths shocking and horrifying.

Here is a video from NBC 5 Chicago on the topic:

Source credit: Reporting from CBS Chicago, NBC 5 Chicago and the Chicago Sun-Times.

The City Just Told Reserv (744 S. Dearborn) to Stop

Block Club Chicago reported Tuesday that the city has hit Reserv, the sports bar at 744 S. Dearborn, with a cease-and-desist order, and that a license hearing has been set. Per Block Club, the order came after another large fight at the bar.

If you live on that stretch of Dearborn, none of this is news to you. Back in July the Sun-Times reported Reserv was facing eviction over roughly $45,800 in unpaid rent going back to March, with former bartenders and servers saying they were owed wages. CBS Chicago was out on the corner of Dearborn and Polk later that month, where neighbors said the music ran until 2am and the place felt less like a neighborhood spot and more like a club. Owner Gerald Joseph told CBS it was his dream project, and that he was doing everything he could to be a friendly neighbor.

A cease-and-desist is a different weight class than a noise complaint.

We are not rooting for another dark storefront at Dearborn and Polk. Printers Row has enough of those. We are also not the ones trying to sleep above it.

If you are on that block: has it actually gotten quieter, or is this the first you are hearing about any of it?

Source credit: Block Club Chicago on the cease-and-desist order. Earlier reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times and CBS Chicago.

Both Illinois Senators Now Want Answers About the Proposed 14th Street Rail Yard Move from South Loop to Bridgeport

The 14th Street rail yard story keeps not being about the 14th Street rail yard.

Quick recap. Amtrak wants to move its maintenance operation off the 47 acres along the river near 14th, which is the land Justin Ishbia has been circling for a (rumored) ballpark. The replacement would go up in Bridgeport, on Canal between 33rd and 35th: four stories, running 24 hours, roughly $900 million, with about $600 million of federal money behind it. The developer is Canal Edge LLC. That is Ishbia too.

This week Bridgeport neighbors pushed back hard. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth asked the Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak to actually explain the thing to the people who will live next to it. Ald. Nicole Lee said the speed of it is a thousand percent alarming.

Worth remembering on our side of the river: none of our 47 acres clear until theirs does.

CBS Chicago and NBC 5 both have the details:

Is this a fair trade? Tell us in the comments.

The Joffco Square on Roosevelt Is Getting a Burlington and a Planet Fitness taking occupancy to 100%

Image via Nassimi Realty.

Joffco Square, the strip at 555 W. Roosevelt with the Best Buy and the Home Depot behind it, is about to be full again.

Burlington signed a ten year lease for roughly 23,000 square feet in the old Ashley HomeStore space. Planet Fitness took about 22,000 square feet on a twelve year deal. Between them that gets the center to fully leased, according to Nassimi Realty, which owns it. Planet Fitness is aiming for December. Burlington says winter or spring of 2027.

Here is the part we keep thinking about. Nassimi bought this whole 100,000 square foot center in 2024 for $9.25 million. The owner before them had paid $27 million. Two years and two big leases later it is full. Somebody read that block correctly.

So: is a Burlington what that corner needed, or did you have something better in mind for 23,000 square feet?

Source credit: REJournals and What Now Chicago, with the 2024 purchase details from Connect CRE.

One of the Shedd's Rescued Belugas Died This Week

Image from Diego Delso

A sad one from Museum Campus. Shedd Aquarium said Wednesday that Peekachu, a 23-year-old beluga, died suddenly on Tuesday. She was one of the whales moved to Chicago this summer from Marineland, the shuttered park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and she had only been at 1200 S. Lake Shore Drive since the middle of the month.

Shedd says blood work showed she was dehydrated, that staff gave her fluids and supportive care, and that she died anyway. A necropsy is being done to find out why. The rest of the rescued belugas are still behind the scenes on round-the-clock monitoring rather than out in the public habitat.

We are not marine biologists and are not going to pretend otherwise. Moving whales across a border into a new tank is a hard call that people who do this for a living still argue about. What we do know is that a lot of us have taken a kid through that building.

WTTW and the Sun-Times both have the details.

Have you been over to Shedd since the belugas arrived? Tell us what you saw.

A 100-Vendor Market Is Taking Over the Soldier Field Lawn on Sunday

Stadium Greens area just southeast of Solider Field

Soldier Field is not done with us. After two nights of BTS, Stadium Green (southeast of the stadium) hosts Black on the Block on Sunday, a traveling marketplace of more than 100 Black-owned businesses making its Chicago debut.

It runs 1pm to 7pm at 1410 Special Olympics Drive, outdoors on the grass, with a food court, bars, DJs and a kids' area. Tickets are under twenty dollars depending on where you buy them, kids 12 and under get in free, and there is paid parking on site if you insist on driving the eight blocks.

It is a lawn, so bring a chair. No outside food or drink, no backpacks, bags 16 inches max. Roughly the same drill as the concerts.

Block Club has the fuller writeup on the vendors and how the market got here. Go read it over there.

Mostly we are noting that Museum Campus is having a weekend. Concert traffic Friday night, a market Sunday afternoon. Plan your Roosevelt crossings accordingly.

Going? Tell us in the comments which vendors were worth it.

Source credit: Block Club Chicago, with event details from Black on the Block

Fifteen Minutes to O'Hare, Plus However Long It Takes You to Get to Canal Street

A group of well-connected Chicago names unveiled the O'Hare Flyer last week: a $2.25 billion, privately funded express train running from Terminal 2 to a new depot at 433 W. Van Buren, just west of the Old Post Office, on long-abandoned tracks under Canal Street. Fifteen minutes each way, departures every fifteen minutes from 4am to 10pm, battery-electric trains at up to 80 mph. Fares somewhere north of the Blue Line and south of an Uber.

While this isn't exactly the South Loop it's close. Van Buren and Canal is west of the river and north of Ida B. Wells.  

Which is the part worth noticing from the Sloop. A 15-minute trip to O'Hare is really 15 minutes plus hauling your bag from Dearborn Park or Prairie Avenue over to Canal. That gap is exactly what the Central Connector bus proposal is meant to close.

Also, we have heard this song before. In 2018 Elon Musk was going to dig us a tunnel.

To be fair, the transit people like this one. DePaul's Joe Schwieterman and the High Speed Rail Alliance's Rick Harnish both think it's more practical than the tunnel fantasy, since it mostly reuses existing freight track. Schwieterman still flags the risks: debt financing, cost overruns, and a single track.

Would you use it, or is Canal too far to schlep with a suitcase? Tell us in the comments.

Source credit: Chicago Sun-Times, with additional reporting from Streetsblog Chicago and Axios Chicago.

Riverline Check-In: 1010 S. Wells Is 15 Floors Up, and Its Neighbor Is Stirring at 910 S. Wells

After a decade of watching dirt at Wells between Roosevelt and 9th, the Riverline site is finally doing skyline things. Chicago YIMBY reports that 1010 S. Wells has climbed to 15 of its eventual 21 floors, on the way to 388 apartments along the river.

And it won't be alone for long. Next door at 910 S. Wells, the second tower picked up its piles permit last month, per Urbanize Chicago. That one is planned at 28 stories and 314 feet, which would make it the taller of the pair.

If you've walked the riverwalk stretch south of Harrison lately, you've seen the wall of concrete going up. We're old enough to remember when this was all renderings and promises, so we'll take actual floors.

What do you think of how Riverline is turning out: good river frontage, or a concrete canyon in the making? Tell us in the comments.

Source credit: Chicago YIMBY and Urbanize Chicago.

No Street Race Next Summer: NASCAR Is Moving to Joliet

That's a wrap on the Grant Park street race, at least for now. NASCAR told the city last week that the 2027 race is moving out to a speedway in Joliet, set for June 25 to 27. The Sun-Times reports Ald. Brian Hopkins summed up the reasons as "75% scheduling and 25% money": the downtown dates kept crashing into July 4 weekend, and a $15 million state grant never came through.

So no barricades on Columbus next summer, no engines echoing off the museums, and no closing DuSable Lake Shore Drive for weeks. City Hall says it's open to bringing the race back, maybe in 2028.

We've heard four summers' worth of opinions on this one, from "world-class showcase" to "why can't we get to the Field Museum in July." Full story at the Sun-Times, with more at Block Club and WBEZ.

So, Sloopers: relieved, or will you actually miss it? Tell us in the comments.

South Loop Round-Up: Vitalogy, 626 Wabash, Da Pope T-Shirt, Southbridge & Sailing

Vitalogy bar brings new life to Printer’s Row – Lisa Shames at Eater Chicago reports that owners Jennifer Wilson and James Shields transformed the ground floor of a 142‑year‑old building in Printer’s Row into Vitalogy, a welcoming neighborhood bar. Featuring a long wooden bar, reclaimed fixtures and even a hydroponic herb garden, the South Loop hangout offers global beers, Chicago‑inspired cocktails (don’t miss the “Second City Milk Punch” with Malört) and a small‑plates menu developed by a chef friend. Wilson and James Shields say they want Vitalogy to be a community hub for the South Loop, with happy hour deals, cocktail classes and live music. Source: Eater Chicago – Lisa Shames 

Southbridge celebrates new retail anchors with ribbon cutting – Jamie Nesbitt Golden at Block Club Chicago reports that Mayor Brandon Johnson and community leaders gathered to open 23rd Place at Southbridge, a mixed‑use development bridging Chinatown, Bronzeville and the South Loop. Beloved brunch spot Batter & Berries and fitness studio 24Life Training & Fitness are the first retail tenants at the 15‑acre site, which will eventually include more than 850 homes and hundreds of public‑housing units. The city recently approved tax‑increment financing for the next phase of construction. Source: Block Club Chicago – Jamie Nesbitt Golden 

626 South Wabash rises above the ‘L’ – Daniel Schell at Chicago YIMBY writes that construction crews at 626 South Wabash Avenue have poured concrete up to the underside of the second level. When finished, the 19‑story tower will bring 164 units (co‑living suites, efficiency units and two‑bedrooms) and ground‑floor retail to the South Loop. Co‑developers DAC Development and Melrose Ascension Capital hope to attract students, while a podium will provide parking and retail space. The project started this spring and aims to open in fall 2026. Source: Chicago YIMBY – Daniel Schell  

South Loop family gifts “Da Pope” T‑shirt to Pope Leo XIV – In a feel‑good story by Chris Tye and Matthew Cramer for CBS Chicago, Marcel and Ann Munoz and their children wore navy blue “Da Pope” shirts to a mass outside Rome and presented a shirt to Pope Leo XIV. The Chicago family’s playful gift – a nod to Bears fandom – went viral after the Pope’s Instagram account shared a photo of him holding the shirt. The family hopes this Chicago blessing will bring good luck to the Bears and charmed South Loop residents. Source: CBS Chicago – Chris Tye & Matthew Cramer 

The equalizing spirit of a sailboat – Chicago Magazine’s Edward McClelland profiles attorney Patrick LoDuca, who watched sailboat races from his South Loop condo until he joined the Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing Program at Burnham Harbor. Thanks to specialized boats that allow sailors to control sails with minimal hand strength, LoDuca now navigates Lake Michigan on his own, experiencing the inclusive and liberating nature of sailing. Source: Chicago Magazine – Edward McClelland 

#ShotsAroundTheSloop: Speedy Saturday at NASCAR

 

(Hat tip: L, I, & CN)