Chicago billionaire Joe Mansueto has found a title sponsor for his controversial property on the West Side.
The founder of real estate research firm Morningstar has struck a naming rights deal on the training facility for Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire FC, a team he also owns through his Mansueto Properties, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Endeavor Health will attach its name on the “Performance Center” at 1532 W. 14th Street, in the Roosevelt Square neighborhood on the Near West Side.
The naming rights run through 2029; financial terms were not disclosed.
Mansueto Properties made a big splash in Chicago real estate and architectural circles in 2019, with the $255 million acquisition of the Wrigley Building at the foot of the Magnificent Mile on North Michigan Avenue. The landmark was commissioned by the late-chewing gum magnate and longtime Chicago Cubs owner Phil Wrigley, and is considered a crown jewel of the city’s globally renowned architectural landscape.
The soccer team’s training facility has been the subject of local controversy since it was first proposed several years ago. The Chicago City Council put a roadblock to its development in 2022, and then changed course.
Various housing advocates then held things up with a lawsuit claiming that The U.S. Department of Housing and the Chicago Housing Authority — which leased the land for the facility to the team—failed to properly review the deal.
The team broke ground on the project early last year, and the lawsuit was dismissed several months later.
The city’s housing agency and Alderman Jason Ervin, who represents the area of the facility as part of the 28th Ward, have said that the revenue generated through the leasing agreement will go toward investing in its existing public housing stock, the Tribune reported.
Mansueto and his wife, Rita, both graduated from the University of Chicago. The couple made a fortune on Morningstar, where he remains chairman, and has since gotten involved in various aspects of Chicago’s business and philanthropic landscape, along with investments in media through Mansueto Ventures, which publishes Inc. and Fast Company.
—Jerry Sullivan