Reinsdorf, Wirtz Buy More Land for 1901 Project

Leaders of the United Center megadevelopment known as the 1901 Project inked a trio of new land deals this month for nearly $11 million. Their overall purchases are nearing the $100 million mark, with the latest acquisitions bringing the team’s total spend on land surrounding the arena to $92 million in the last several years, public records show.

Project heads Danny Wirtz and Michael Reinsdorf — whose families respectively own the NHL’s Blackhawks and NBA’s Bulls franchises and jointly own their home venue, the United Center — are expanding their territory while also making gains at City Hall.

The $7 billion megadevelopment was approved by both the zoning committee and the full City Council this week.

“From the start, we knew this wouldn’t be a typical process. We set out to do something with no existing blueprint,” said Wirtz, CEO of the Blackhawks.

The trio of recent land purchases are located on Madison Street and Warren Boulevard, two blocks east of the arena. Local property tax attorney Scott Shudnow was the longtime owner of the lots, which are used for stadium parking. The parcels include 1717 West Warren Boulevard, 1704 West Madison Street and 1707 West Madison Street.

Shudnow did not respond to requests for comment.

Last year, before the megadevelopment had been announced, he told the Chicago Sun-Times that he did not plan to sell, even as other longtime owners had taken offers. At the time, he claimed the Reinsdorfs had offered him $8 million for his parking lots, meaning he seems to have squeezed about $3 million more out of the buyers, property records show.

The United Center ownership’s latest purchases represent the latest in a string of pickups they’ve made in the last several months to solidify their control of the area, even as the team owners announced last year their intent to forge ahead on the massive redevelopment.

Over the course of several phases, the development will include the construction of a new 6,000-seat music hall, 1,300 hotel rooms, 9,500 apartments — 20 percent of which will be set aside as affordable — retail space and an elaborate park system that includes rooftop greenspaces above parking garages. The project is expected to break ground this summer and will be backed almost entirely by private funding, leaders of the project have said.

Local politicians have cited the project’s mostly private funding as a major key to its approval at city hall.