At Least it's Privately Funded

This is an interesting endeavor for sure:

• The area around the United Center could be transformed into a sprawling campus with housing, a music hall and more, owners announced Tuesday.

  Dubbed The 1901 Project after the United Center’s Madison Street address, the $7 billion development is expected to take a decade to complete. The owners of the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks would convert 55 acres of land surrounding the arena — much of which is now blacktop parking lots — into housing, retail, entertainment and public space.

  The plan has been five years in the making, first under the leadership of Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and late Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz.
  

As long time readers know, we were always impressed with old Dollar Bill Wirtz keeping the Blackhawks on the west side when everything pointed to moving away from what often looked like downtown Beirut. and we were even more impressed when in the midst of a national stadium boom, financed by taxpayer money and enriching the connected, Wirtz paid for his own building over the course of a few years. 

Now another privately funded venture:

• At a press conference Tuesday, the center’s leaders said they would fund the massive project through private investment instead of seeking city or state funds. 

  This year, the White Sox — also owned by Reinsdorf — and the Bears have appealed to state legislators for support in building new stadiums in Chicago. Asked about that, United Center CEO Terry Savarise insisted that would not be the strategy at the United Center.

  “We are not going to Springfield to ask for money as the White Sox have done,” Savarise said. “Or the [Chicago] Bears, by the way.”

The potential payoff is huge.

So are the potential downfalls, especially when the local aldercreatures begin claiming long time residents are being priced out of their own neighborhood.