Chicago’s first casino has yet to open to the public, but someone already has hit a jackpot topping $20 million.
It’s Albert M. Friedman, the clout-heavy developer whose tenants have included three mayors — Brandon Johnson, Lori Lightfoot and Rahm Emanuel.
Friedman owns the historic but long-vacant Medinah Temple building about a mile north of City Hall that he’s leasing to Bally’s for a temporary casino until it builds a planned gambling emporium at the riverfront site of the Chicago Tribune’s printing plant.
Bally’s has to pay Friedman more than $16.5 million in rent plus a management fee of $330,000, under the terms of its four-year lease, obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Bally’s also must pay Medinah Temple’s Cook County property taxes — a bill that has topped $1.1 million a year.