Seven years ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner invited dignitaries to a 62-acre plot of land in the South Loop and offered a bold promise: The long-vacant property would be transformed, with a high-tech research facility to be built there that would give a massive economic boost to the city of Chicago.
The University of Illinois would operate the proposed $285 million facility, dubbed the Discovery Partners Institute. It would sit on an acre south of Roosevelt Road along the east bank of the Chicago River donated by the property owner, Nadhmi Shakir Auchi, an Iraqi British billionaire who has long been denied entry to the United States as a result of past criminal convictions.
But the university pulled the plug in October on the planned research hub at the sprawling site that has sat vacant for decades and is now being marketed as The 78. The U. of I. instead said it would turn its vision to the south and become part of a quantum computing research park that Gov. JB Pritzker wants to build on a vacant, 300-acre site at East 79th Street and South DuSable Lake Shore Drive once occupied by US Steel.
That decision means Illinois taxpayers are now out more than $30 million, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
And the losses for taxpayers still could grow, sources say, to $40 million.
“I think it’s about right,” says Deba Dutta, interim executive director of the Discovery Partners Institute.
Then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel shakes then-Gov. Bruce Rauner’s hand in 2017 after speaking about plans for the The 78, a long-vacant, 62-acre site just south of Roosevelt Road. The University of Illinois’ propoed Discovery Partners Institute was supposed to be part of that proposed development.
Max Herman / Sun-Times
The University of Illinois spent $1.3 million on the project, records show, and the Illinois Capital Development Board — the state’s construction management agency — spent $30.8 million.
Here’s a breakdown of those expenses:
- $19,937,1199 went to Jacobs Consultants, which designed a 261,000-square-foot building that was to have served as the Discovery Partners headquarters.
- $5,545,220 went to Clark Construction Group, which had a contract that ultimately was supposed to be worth $196 million.
- $5,316,798 went to Turner-Descoto-Powers & Sons-Cullen Joint Venture, which had a $14 million contract for construction management services. That included payments to its subcontractors.
- And $75,225 went to Johnson Lasky Kindelin Architect, Inc.
The DPI project is part of a multimillion dollar state initiative to build innovation centers at public universities statewide and bring more people into technological and scientific research. The hope is that they put their degrees to work in Illinois rather than elsewhere.
The DPI project was still going forward last summer as two pro sports teams — baseball’s White Sox and soccer’s Fire — were looking to build their own, separate stadiums on Auchi’s land. The current status of those stadium plans is unclear.
Dutta says it’s possible that the work the companies did on that proposal might still be able to be used to build on the Far South Side site of the planned Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park.
“What we will do at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronic Park has not been determined yet,” Dutta says. “It’s our hope that some of the designs will be transferred over.”
Dutta says the university’s decision to switch its focus to the quantum park came as construction costs continued to rise in the Loop, where there is an abundance of empty office space in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Discovery Partners plans to continue operating from the office space it’s been using at 200 S. Wacker Dr. while the university searches for a cheaper deal on office space.
“We did run this by the governor’s office, and they were supportive of this plan,” Dutta says. “It’s good for the state. It’s good for taxpayer dollars.”
Pritzker’s office says in a written statement: “The decision by the University of Illinois’ Discovery Partners Institute to expand their focus to include the IQMP is aligned with Governor Pritzker’s vision to make Illinois a global hub for the future of quantum computing and create opportunities for Illinoisans. DPI’s ascendance, in addition to the global shifts in the world’s technological landscape, has created a once in a generation opportunity for growth while simultaneously allowing us to maintain our commitment to creating a sustainable, equitable economic landscape in the state of Illinois.”
It’s unclear how the university’s decision will affect Related Midwest’s efforts to develop Auchi’s property, which he bought from then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s former political fixer Tony Rezko, who was convicted in 2008 of corruption-related charges and sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison.
Curt Bailey, Related Midwest’s president, didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
His company also is working with the Pritzker administration to develop the quantum computing park on the Far South Side.
When Dutta texted Bailey on Oct. 17 about the university’s decision to walk away from the Auchi property and switch its plans to Pritzker’s proposed quantum park, Bailey’s main concern seemed to be about regaining control of the acre in the South Loop.
“I need the email telling me I’m getting the property back asap,” Bailey wrote Dutta in an Oct. 17 text message the Sun-Times obtained from U. of I. under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. “Let me know who I need to call to get that done (Gov, etc.).”
Dutta responded that he was looking into returning the property to Related Midwest.
“No need to call anyone. Back to you soon,” he wrote.
Three months after Bailey sent his text, the university still holds the deed to the property, according to records filed with the Cook County clerk’s office.