Consider DuSable Park the Block 37 of parkland.
Like Block 37, the prime real estate that stood vacant for decades at Randolph and State streets until a shopping center went up on the site, the scrubby swath of undeveloped parkland known as DuSable Park has suffered the same fate as an empty plot plagued by financial and other roadblocks.
"The land, yes, has been sitting there for at least 30 years. It's unfortunate the founder of the city has to go through so much to get proper recognition," said Serge Pierre-Louis, president of the DuSable Heritage Association in Chicago and member of the DuSable Park steering committee. "We are hoping for a positive conclusion to that long road."
The three-acre park property, dedicated by Mayor Harold Washington in the 1980s to honor the city's first non-native settler, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, is filled with overgrown weeds and shrubs as it sits closed off to the public just east of Lake Shore Drive where the Chicago River feeds into Lake Michigan. The Navy Pier Flyover, the elevated bike and pedestrian path currently under construction, will go right past the park site. The undeveloped peninsula is directly across from the gaping hole that is the Spire skyscraper site and was linked to the development before the Spire project stalled.
Recent attempts to revive the Spire development, including recent confirmation of developer Garrett Kelleher's reorganization plan to emerge from bankruptcy, has park advocates hopeful that plans to develop the park will be reignited after failing to gain traction over the years.
"What everyone's waiting for is to see what happens with the Spire," said Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy and member of the DuSable Park steering committee. He said the "responsible thing to do" is see if the developer will pay a significant share of the cost for the park being integrated into the design of the skyscraper project by the noted Spire architect Santiago Calatrava.
"The opportunity to have him design the park and get that built is a great one," he said.
DuSable Park itself isn't legally tied to the Spire development, park district spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said. But the park and building should work in unison, she said. "Moving forward on a temporary park development [for millions] that may undergo a complete revision with a new building is a poor use of public funds," she said in an email.
For decades, open space advocates have waited for the park to get developed, even rallying at one point against a proposal to turn the land into a temporary parking lot. The site has had issues with the seawall needing to be replaced and the land being contaminated with thorium. The park district completed environmental remediation in 2012 thanks to a $256,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Before the Spire was put on hold, Kelleher's Shelbourne Development company committed to pay $9 million to develop DuSable Park while the city and park district each pledged $3 million, the Chicago Tribune had reported.
The parkland was first going to be used temporarily as a construction staging area for the landlocked Spire. But then, the Spire plans fell apart and so did plans for the park.
"It should be easier for the founder of the city to get a park in his name. It is disappointing after so many years he still doesn't have a park," Pierre-Louis said.
Friends of the Park president Cassandra Francis said she would like to see the park decoupled from the development process and have a plan to move forward so it won't be further delayed if the Spire or another development at that location gets stalled again. The downtown park site was a stop on the Friends of the Park open space trolley tour in August and September.
"To sit and not have a specific funding and implementation plan in place for this park is a crime, particularly given it is honoring our first black founder of the city," Francis said.
Nearby, other park developments are underway. "There's a lot that's happening in the downtown lakefront riverfront area. DuSable Park sort of got lost," O'Neill said.
However, some of the park projects happening now have been in the works for years and weren't so easy to fund, he said.
To the east, the southern end of Northerly Island is in the midst of a habitat restoration project paid for by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers grant and revenues generated from the concert venue there. To the south, the $55 million, 20-acre Maggie Daley Park is under construction and funded by a combination of public and private money, including the lease of underground parking garages. Also, a skate park is under construction in Grant Park. To the north, a $20 million gift from the Polk Family is supporting the redevelopment of Gateway Park at Navy Pier's entrance.
"You have all other projects moving all around and this one is not moving," Pierre-Louis said.
Funding to develop DuSable Park remains a big hurdle.
"The issue is, it still needs a lot of work and it needs a lot of money," Chicago Park District CEO Michael Kelly said.
Building the park is not included in the park district's capital improvement plan, he said.
At a three-hour regional budget hearing last month, park advisory councils made dozens of requests for projects ranging from playground resurfacing to turf fields and lights. With nearly 600 parks in its system, the park district can't entirely fund all the needs in its $30 million annual capital budget, he said.
The park district has not forgotten about the lakefront park, which remains a "huge" priority, Kelly said. It doesn't have to be tied to the Spire, but it does need financial backers, Kelly said.
"There should be partners on that project whether it's the local elected [officials], Navy Pier, city of Chicago, all of the above, including us. We should partner on it," he said. "The park needs a champion and it's too costly for us to go at it alone."
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