Chicago: Bally’s landlord at Medinah Temple hits $20 million jackpot with temporary casino

Chicago: Bally’s landlord at Medinah Temple hits $20 million jackpot with temporary casino

Article brief provided by Chicago Sun-Times
  • Tim Novak and Mitchell Armentrout , Chicago Sun-Times
September 8, 2023 4:16 PM
  • Tim Novak and Mitchell Armentrout , Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago’s first casino has yet to open to the public, but someone already has hit a jackpot topping $20 million.

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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.