Austin Bonta

And it was as that attention was growing, we felt it was very important to get the facts out, give the opportunity to get questions answered.

And that's where we called a press conference.

And it was exciting to see so much interest from the media to be able to come out and learn about what the city has to offer to the Bears, to fans, and to the whole Chicagoland region.

So it really started back in January of 2024 when my team came in.

I'm on my third year as mayor now, and we came in.

Our city had owned this piece of land, which used to be a lot smaller of a piece of land, since 1995.

And there's been different attempts over the years.

Different companies have come and gone.

Different ideas have been proposed of what they want to do with this land.

In particular, how to create connectivity between 249 and Route 12.

When we came in, what we looked at is that to the east of the land, there was all of this really great property, also undeveloped land, but it had multiple different owners and it had multiple different shapes.

And so in addition to not being very accessible, undeveloped land, the ownership situation made it a maze to be able to get somebody to come in and develop it.

So we knew from the start what we had to do over the last two years was start working with other owners to be able to buy the different pieces of land and

That's how we've now ended up with over 300 acres at this site.

It's an incredible site where the highways, the train and the waterway

all come together to create this really great destination.

And from the beginning, when we looked at this site back in January of 2024, we said, now keep in mind, that was two years ago.

I think the Arlington deal or the original Arlington deal, as announced, was maybe only a year old by then.

We said, man, this would have actually been a great spot to pitch the Bears.

But, you know, timing doesn't always work out.