About $62.5 million in a combination of public funds and private donations have been pumped into the redevelopment of what is now the 27.7-acre Maggie Daley Park, and yet a section of the south end sits untouched.
But that will change now that a downsized restaurant planned for the Monroe Drive park won approval from the Chicago Plan Commission Thursday.
Plans called for an 8,000-square-foot glass facade restaurant, which would provide another food option and much-needed public bathrooms and shade near the children’s playground while giving the Chicago Park District an opportunity to generate revenue at the popular park.
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“We desperately need the concession. We desperately need the revenue. It’s been my goal since we built Maggie Daley Park to operate the park budget neutral if not in the black,” said Chicago Park District CEO Michael Kelly.
Maggie Daley Park, named in honor of the late wife of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, opened in December 2014 and features an ice skating ribbon, play garden, rock climbing walls and tennis courts. The Park District charges to rent ice skates, climb the walls and reserve the courts.
The Four Corners Tavern Group was selected in January 2015 for a 10-year deal to design, build and operate the year-round restaurant and snack kiosk. Park District officials said the tavern group would be responsible for paying for the restaurant’s construction, utilities and $75,000 a year in rent plus 5 to 10 percent of gross sales to the Park District. Kelly said he did not have an immediate estimate on construction costs for the unnamed restaurant or a date for the groundbreaking.
Park District officials had expected it to be built and open by February. Now Chicago Park District officials are aiming to open the restaurant next year.
The project has stalled due to changes to the design and scope of the restaurant development. Friends of the Parks, the preservation group, and Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, both said they pushed for changes to lower the height and reduce the project’s footprint.
The proposed restaurant was downsized over the past year from 15,750 square feet to 8,000 square feet and was set back another 5 feet from Monroe Drive, according to the Park District.
Friends of the Parks Executive Director Juanita Irizarry said the group felt the Park District listened to its concerns and responded, for example, by lowering the restaurant height from nearly 25 feet to 23 feet 6 inches. Including the guardrail on the restaurant roof, where the park’s lawn will extend over to be a green roof, the total structure above ground will be 27 feet high. Friends of the Parks had asked for the height of the total structure, including the guardrail, to be lowered by another 10 feet, but the height remained at 27 feet, which is still lower than the park’s high point of 37 feet in elevation, as the park’s topography varies.
“Our preference would be a little lower. But after many months of negotiations with the Park District, we felt like most of our concerns were addressed. So we did support the project,” Irizarry said. “We believe that a variety of amenities can be appropriate in parks. Having a place to sit and eat in Maggie Daley Park will be good for tourists and residents alike.”
As many as 5,000 children hit the park’s playground every day in summer, Kelly said. The top complaint has been the need for a concession, he said.
The restaurant will replace the seasonal cafe and mini golf course located there before the transformation of Daley Bicentennial Plaza into Maggie Daley Park.
The restaurant deal with Four Corners was purposefully different from the Park Grill at Millennium Park, park officials said.
Last year, a judge denied the city’s request to break a controversial long-term lease with a clout-heavy restaurant operator the Park District selected for the city-owned property. Under the Park Grill deal, the restaurateur pays about $250,000 a year in rent based on a percentage of food and drink sales. Additionally, the company was supposed to pay a base yearly payment of $275,000, but that clause was deferred under the lease terms, according to the city.
In the Four Corners deal, the Park District owns the property. The taxpayer-owned restaurant will pay an annual usage fee plus a gross percentage based on certain benchmarks, said Timothy King, the Park District’s general counsel.
“In fact, we were painstaking in our efforts to make sure this wasn’t the Park Grill. It’s a good deal for the taxpayers. It’s a fair deal,” Kelly said.
Kelly said he was taken aback by how “wildly successful” Maggie Daley Park has been since it opened. He pointed to its location and proximity to Millennium Park and the lakefront and its skating ribbon as some of the reasons why.
In its previous form, the park was “a great park, but it was the best-kept secret for parents like me with young kids because nobody but us used the playground in the corner,” Kelly said. “It was sort of a dark, cold space even in the summer . . . It was a park you never went into in the winter and now all of the sudden there’s a reason to go there. It’s a destination.”