Camilla Forte/Borderless Magazine/Catchlight Local/Report for AmericaWhile the amount of tax subsidies for the stadium remains undecided, community members are pushing for a formal agreement to secure the development’s promised affordable housing and economic benefits.
You Guang Huynh didn’t learn about the new Chicago Fire stadium being built near his family’s Chinatown businesses until January — two months before work was expected to begin.
“It should be good, right?” wondered Huynh, who works at Nam Bac Hang acupuncture center on Cermak Road.
Huynh’s uncertainty captures the mixed feelings community members hold about the project. Some believe the stadium development will bring foot traffic and business to the Chinatown area, while others fear it could push longtime residents out of the neighborhood.
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As developer Related Midwest broke ground on the stadium on Tuesday, the project has raised questions about how Chicago should manage large-scale development near minority and low-income neighborhoods.
Some residents and activists are calling for a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) to ensure that residents and businesses in surrounding immigrant neighborhoods have robust protections against potential increases in property taxes and costs of living.
“The fundamental problem that I see … it’s the collective of all the developments in Chicago, and what is the actual impact it’s going to have in the city when community residents don’t really have a say,” said Debbie Liu, co-president of the Ping Tom Park Advisory Council.
A stadium poised to reshape the South Loop
The future home of the Fire stadium sits just north of Ping Tom Park in Chinatown. The 62-acre plot of undeveloped land, owned by Related Midwest, is known as The 78, a reference to Chicago’s 77 community areas.
The developer purchased the property a decade ago with visions of creating “the 78th” neighborhood in Chicago. Over the years, various ideas for the land have been discussed, including a casino, a tech hub for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an Amazon headquarters and a White Sox stadium. However, the land has remained largely untouched until now.
In June 2025, Chicago Fire FC owner Joe Mansueto announced plans to privately fund a new $750 million, 22,000-seat stadium on the site. The stadium aims to not only “anchor the city’s future 78th neighborhood” but also “serve as a catalyst for job creation, economic development and vibrant community life,” according to the Fire’s website.
Both Related Midwest and Fire officials say the stadium and broader project at The 78, upon completion, will bring benefits such as economic investment, tax revenue, construction jobs and affordable housing units.
Despite these promises, some Chinatown and Bridgeport community members are worried about the megadevelopment’s adverse impact on existing neighborhoods.
In a letter to the city’s Plan Commission in September, the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC), Ping Tom Park Advisory Council, Lugenia Burns Hope Center and others raised concerns about gentrification and displacement. They called for a more equitable development process.
“This historic neighborhood is under threat from large-scale development proposals that fail to account for the lived realities of residents and small business owners,” the group wrote.
Four months after the stadium’s announcement, Chicago’s Plan Commission and full City Council approved the project in September.
“This is an exciting moment for Chicago, and especially for those in the 3rd Ward,” said Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) in a newsletter to constituents in October 2025. “The transformation of unused land into a vibrant development is a challenging yet invigorating opportunity.”
Concerns about community input
Some Chinatown and Bridgeport community members say the approval process moved too quickly for meaningful community input.
“Like how many other developments have happened in the city, it felt like it was just pushed through so silently and so quickly without any community input,” said Amanda Mauser, a longtime Bridgeport resident.
Related Midwest held more than a dozen community meetings with stakeholders during the stadium’s planning, Ald. Dowell said during the stadium’s groundbreaking. The alderman thanked residents in her ward for attending meetings and providing criticisms, feedback and support.
“These types of projects do not take place in a vacuum. It requires a lot of input and listening,” Dowell said.
“The community’s reception to the Fire being the anchor to The 78 has been overwhelmingly positive,” according to Related Midwest’s summary to the Plan Commission.
A Related Midwest spokesperson did not respond to Borderless questions regarding community engagement efforts.
The Chicago team has “engaged closely with residents and community stakeholders throughout the process,” said Dan Cohen, senior director of communications for the Fire, said in an email. “The club has worked hand-in-hand with [Ald. Dowell’s] office, the City, and its partners to ensure community input helps shape the project.”
According to the project summary, there was one meeting with Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) and “Chinatown leaders” on Aug. 21, 2025. The other meetings over a four-month period included South Loop and Near South community organizations.
“This project has been professionally rolled out, from outreach to community engagement and is now at the stage where construction on the stadium has been approved,” Ald. Lee’s office shared in an email statement.
Still, some local community members told Borderless Magazine they were unaware of the proposed stadium. Others said one meeting was not enough to consider the concerns of people in Chinatown and Bridgeport.
Bridgeport resident Mauser felt like local outreach to neighboring wards about the stadium was “nonexistent.”
“Unless you’re within circles of local politics or activism, I don’t know how anyone would even be aware that any of this is happening,” said Mauser, a member of the 11th Ward Independent Political Organization.
Liu said the four-month period between the release of the stadium plans and their approval by the City Council wasn’t enough time for community members to learn about the stadium and share their input. “It was actually really hard to even get information,” she said.
The push for a Community Benefits Agreement
Community groups are continuing to push for a CBA that ensures robust protections for Chinatown and neighboring communities.
They say, a legally binding document — such as a CBA between Related Midwest, the Chicago Fire and the surrounding neighborhoods — would translate the developer’s promises into enforceable commitments on affordable housing and better infrastructure to mitigate traffic.
“The fight for a CBA can set a precedent on how private development should have public accountability and community engagement,” said Sarah Tang, director for programs for the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC).
“I’ve heard the concerns of my, and other aldermen’s constituents, since this project impacts multiple wards, and I know we are all looking for a balance between growth and sustainability,” Ald. Lee said.
Winifred Curran, a DePaul University geography professor who researches gentrification, said a CBA would give Related Midwest a concrete way to signal it is taking community concerns seriously. “There’s a way to do development without displacement,” she said.
The push mirrors a similar fight over Related Midwest’s quantum computing campus in South Shore — a historically marginalized neighborhood where community groups demanded a CBA to hold the developer accountable for promised economic benefits.
Related Midwest has not publicly committed to a CBA for the stadium, though a spokesperson said the project would include public benefits such as affordable housing and public infrastructure improvements. The developer’s past developments have prioritized workforce development programs and community-based hiring practices, according to the spokesperson.
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“The same approach will be taken at The 78, whose public benefits have already included partnerships with local schools, workforce development events, and minority and women-owned subcontractor forums,” the spokesperson shared over email.
The 78 development is on a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district, meaning a portion of tax dollars from the area will go toward infrastructure surrounding the Chicago Fire stadium.
In 2019, Related Midwest’s mega development called for $551 million in tax revenue subsidies to offset development costs, according to reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times. Ald. Lee’s office said the details of how much TIF money would be allocated to the stadium have not yet been finalized.
“All of that is being worked through,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said of the TIF plans at the groundbreaking ceremony for the stadium on Tuesday.
Chinatown’s history and future
For longtime community members, the stakes feel deeply personal.
Liu, born and raised in Chinatown, described the neighborhood as an irreplaceable cultural anchor — a place of grocery stores stocked with bok choy and lotus root, Sunday schools teaching Cantonese, and restaurants serving dim sum and barbecue pork.
Chicago’s Chinatown was created after immigrant workers were priced out of their homes in the Loop and moved south to Chinatown’s current location on Cermak Road, according to the National Museum of American History.
But over the last 30 years, median rent in Armour Square, which includes the Chinatown community, has risen from $678 in 1990 to $895 in 2022, and in nearby Bridgeport has climbed by roughly $450 over the same period, according to WBEZ data. In Armour Square, low-income households also pay a higher share of their income for housing compared to the city as a whole, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Nancy Chan, who has lived in Bridgeport for almost four decades, said she’s worried about the stadium’s impact on traffic, parking and property taxes. Chan immigrated to the U.S. from Hong Kong and currently owns her home in Bridgeport.
She said she’d like to move to a nearby senior housing community to save money, but the waitlist stretches over a decade.
“Everything is hard,” she said.
Without a CBA, Liu worries local residents may be affected by gentrification or other impacts from the new stadium. Then, they’ll have to “change to fit the needs of these developers.”
Liu said developers have long promised the project would deliver broad benefits — more business, more visitors, a new stadium, and add economic and tax revenue. “But at what expense?” she said.
While some remain wary, city officials view the stadium and surrounding development as a new chapter for the South Loop and neighboring communities.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Johnson joined Chicago Fire and Related Midwest officials for a ceremonial groundbreaking, calling the event a “transformational day” for Chicago.
The stadium’s groundbreaking, Johnson said, marked a major step for all of Chicago and the Near South Side that had remained empty along the river for too long.
“With today’s groundbreaking, we begin to meet our city’s fullest potential,” Johnson said. “We expect the Chicago Fire stadium to be an anchor on The 78 that will attract recreation, dining, cultural spaces and investments for our entire city.”
Katrina Pham es la reportera de participación de la audiencia de Borderless Magazine. Envía un correo electrónico a Katrina a [email protected].
