Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is still considering housing migrants in the Marina City complex, an alderman said Wednesday, after the mayor’s office recently denied that a hotel in the River North mixed-use complex was being considered.
Alderman Brendan Reilly’s latest statement adds a new twist to a head-scratching week involving the well-known real estate complex near the Chicago River.
In an email to constituents earlier this week, the 42nd Ward alderman warned against what he said was a plan under consideration by the city to place more than 1,000 migrants in the Hotel Chicago Downtown.
Johnson’s office then told CoStar News and other media in a statement Monday that: “There are no plans to convert Hotel Chicago, 333 N. Dearborn, into shelter for new arrivals.”
Reilly later took credit for shutting down the plan. On Wednesday, the situation became muddled further when the owner of the 354-room hotel, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, said it had been surprised by reports that its property was under consideration.
Chief Financial Officer Ray Martz told Crain’s Chicago Business that Reilly’s alert was “news to us,” and said the company hadn’t had any conversations with city officials about using the property to house migrants.
He told the business publication that the report caused employees to worry about the future of the hotel, which the real estate investment trust earlier this year put on the market for sale along with connected retail space.
But in the new message Wednesday, after the Crain’s report was published, Reilly attempted to clarify the situation.
In the new email, Reilly said he had been provided the incorrect Marina City address “from our source in the mayor’s office. He accused Johnson of “not being entirely truthful” when he denied the property was under consideration, saying the city is still looking at using the adjacent former Museum of Broadcast Communications as makeshift housing.
Reilly added that he “is disappointed the mayor’s press office chose not to share this important information with the media earlier this week when they knew, full well, that the address immediately adjacent to the Hotel Chicago was (and remains) in consideration for use as a migrant hotel.”
The downtown alderman said that when the Johnson administration provided him with the correct address of 360 N. State, he reiterated his “strenuous objections to this location.”
Reilly said he confirmed with the 360 N. State property owner that Johnson recently toured the space and expressed interest in potentially using it as a migrant shelter.
Marina City includes the hotel and retail space and twin, 60-story, corncob-like residential towers designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg.
The four-story, 66,511-square-foot building is controlled by Chicago developer Fern Hill, which in recent years has been planning to redevelop it. When the museum closed earlier this year, Fern Hill exercised its option to buy the two floors it didn’t already own, the Chicago Tribune reported in May.
It’s unclear whether Fern Hill has completed that acquisition, and the firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoStar News on Wednesday. The mayor’s office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Reilly’s latest email to constituents.
North of the State Street property, Fern Hill is in the process of seeking approval for a colorful, 36-story apartment tower in Old Town.
Reilly previously said he objected to housing migrants at the River North complex because it could “do irreparable harm to the River North community.”
He and another alderman, Brian Hopkins of the 2nd Ward, already have been trying to shut down a 1,500-migrant shelter within the Inn of Chicago hotel at 162 E. Ohio St., citing criminal activity and other problems emerging from that building near the Magnificent Mile shopping avenue, a Bally’s temporary casino and other tourist attractions.