A downtown alderman is warning constituents that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is looking to use a big River North hotel to house more than 1,000 migrants, a plan the new mayor denies is in the works.
Alderman Brendan Reilly of the 42nd Ward in an email to residents on Monday said he has learned Johnson is considering using the Hotel Chicago Downtown hotel as a migrant hotel, saying he is “vehemently opposed” to the plan. Reilly added that he “believes this decision will do irreparable harm to the River North community.”
A spokesperson for the mayor on said in a brief statement to CoStar News that “there are no plans to convert Hotel Chicago … into shelter for new arrivals.”
Reilly’s message comes after more than 19,000 migrants have arrived in the nation’s third-largest city since the first buses sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott arrived in August 2022, according to the Chicago Tribune. Large sanctuary cities such as Chicago and New York are searching for ways to safely house waves of arrivals, which has overloaded existing shelter systems and consumed tax dollars.
The crisis has left Johnson with a major logistical challenge just months into his first term, while Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other officials also have tried to rally to meet the demand for housing arrivals — many from Venezuela — as winter weather rapidly approaches.
If the Hotel Chicago Downtown is being considered for migrant housing, the plan comes just a few months after Crain’s Chicago Business first reported the owner of the 354-room hotel and connected retail and parking space within the Marina City complex were putting the property up for sale.
It’s unclear where prospective buyers have emerged for the hotel at 333 N. Dearborn St. The real estate investment trust that owns it, Bethesda, Maryland-based Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoStar News.
Reilly’s warning also comes just a few weeks after he and another alderman, Brian Hopkins of the 2nd Ward, publicly began call on Johnson to shut down a 1,500-migrant shelter within the Inn of Chicago hotel at 162 E. Ohio St., not far from the Magnificent Mile shopping avenue and other tourist attractions.
They are urging the city not to renew a migrant housing contract with the city when it expires at the end of the year, saying that property has caused neighborhood problems since it opened as a migrant shelter. Earlier this month, the aldermen said they each have received hundreds of complaints about a range of criminal activities at the site.
Reilly urged constituents to voice their concerns about any plans being considered for the Marina City complex to city leaders, providing contact information to the mayor’s office and other officials such as the deputy mayor of immigrant and refugee rights, Beatriz Ponce de Leon.
“The Hotel is steps from an already problematic CTA Red Line stop; just blocks away from the temporary Bally’s Casino; and is surrounded by residential buildings, hotels, and other tourism destinations,” Reilly said in the email.
“Alderman Reilly thinks converting the Hotel Chicago into a migrant hotel defies logic,” Reilly added.