Chicago unveils $1.1 billion plan for DePaul arena, Navy Pier upgrades

Crain's Chicago Business' Greg Hinz sheds light on a bold plan by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to boost the city's tourism and entertainment industries. The Emanuel administration earlier this week announced details on two separate projects that combined represent more than $1 billion in investments.

Hinz writes:

In one, a final deal has been struck to build a 10,000-seat arena across the street from McCormick Place that will be the new home of the DePaul Blue Demons basketball team and host smaller conferences, meetings, concerts and other sporting events. As part of that undertaking, a 500-room hotel will be erected kitty-corner from a 1,100-room "headquarters" hotel that already had been announced.

In the other initiative, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's team announced that it's ready to move ahead with the first, $163 million phase of the redevelopment of Navy Pier. Included: a new park and bicycle flyover at the pier's west end, an expanded Children's Museum and 54,000 square feet of new dining and entertainment space, mostly on the pier's lightly used east end.

Read the report by Crain's Chicago Business.