The prospects for the massive One Central development became no less hazy during an online meeting Jan. 25 hosted by the city's Dept. of Planning and Development and Third Ward Ald. Pat Dowell. The developer still has not actually filed a Planned Development application, but in December Chicago adopted new guidelines calling for more meetings early in the process for proposed megadevelopments. 

Landmark Development's $20 billion One Central project envisions skyscrapers as tall as 89 stories, a transit center, and more than 9000 residential units in some 20 million square feet of buildings. The base would be a 30-acre platform above the Metra tracks near Soldier Field. 

Some changes to the project have been made since previous presentations. Changes include moving proposed high-rises to the eastern edge of the site to set them further away from existing Museum Park building, and retaining privately owned "Mark Twain Park" rather than building on it.

City and state leaders have so far been unwilling to publicly reject outright a project promoted by a developer with enough Springfield clout to get special provisions enabling the scheme included in the must-pass 2020 budget legislation. That bill cleared the way for the developer to seek federal grants, but did not commit to providing any state funding. Now the state is grappling with a nearly $4 billion deficit. "With the pandemic's economic turmoil upending state budgets around the country, it would be a challenge for any state to provide the significant amount this developer is seeking," Pritzker spokeswoman Emily Bittner said in a statement to the Tribune. "The state faces tremendous challenges and our efforts will focus on rebuilding in the aftermath ofthe pandemic, supporting residents hardest hit by the disease and helping small businesses get back on their feet."

Bittner also said that the governor's office has not seen a study that demonstrates the need for the transit hub. Chicago DOT officials noted during the meeting that it has many unanswered questions about the transit hub. Extension of Metra BNSF trains to the site no longer seems to be part of the scheme, and work is proceeding that will actually take Amtrak trains off the tracks that pass through the site. What lines an expensive and unsightly new CTA stub would connect with is never discussed, and was obscured by building renderings in the presentation materials. CTA and Metra have politely but noncommittally said "we'll look at whatever plan is presented."

The developer asserts that the public investment would be a good investment, with $78 billion in "new tax revenues and other economic impacts" for the state, another $60 billion for the city and "$14 gillion" for Cook County. Those figures come from an analysis prepared for the developer by AECOM, an engineering firm. The developer also claims the transit hub would somehow "bring an estimated 78,000 new jobs to the South Side."

Ald. Dowell opened the meeting by stating that her support for One Central "is not a done deal. There are no backroom shenanigans going on." 

The full two-hour meeting can be watched at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nTMAPAiLf0