Landon’s Loop

Asked @dannywirtz who pays for 1901, the $7 billion plan to turn the United Center parking lots into a neighborhood He said they were clear from the beginning that they were going to fund it themselves There are real estate incentives on the table, but this is not a public stadium deal That makes things a little easier with the city, and it has to be financially responsible for them to do

Danny Wirtz, chairman of the Chicago @NHLBlackhawks and co-owner of the @UnitedCenter, talks about The 1901 Project, a $7 billion plan to turn the parking lots around the UC into a new West Side neighborhood We cover the 6,000-seat music hall now going up, building with the neighborhood instead of just near it, and the stewardship mindset his family has carried from the Chicago Stadium to today 📺 youtube.com/watch?v=EsRO3rg0… Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:25 Danny's Summer Job as a Roadie for Ministry 1:45 Early Music Memories in Chicago 2:41 Why 1901? Nearly 100 Years on One West Side Footprint 5:33 Phase One: Plazas, a Hotel, and a 24/7 Campus 9:15 Why 6,000 Seats Is Chicago's Missing Venue Size 10:27 Designing a Music Hall from Scratch 11:50 The Team Behind the Music Hall 13:45 Privately Funding 1901 15:31 Building with the Neighborhood 18:03 How Big Things Actually Get Done in Chicago 20:32 Getting Labor, Civic, and Business to the Same Table 21:32 What Has to Go Right Before Phase Two 23:10 Four Generations of Wirtz Stewardship @dannywirtz @landonsloop

FIRST CHICAGOAN TO SIT IN A @Waymo ?? 👀 All because we’re hosting Chicago Builds: Third Rail this Thursday Nov 12 It’s a summit on how Chicago moves, from driverless cars and an express train to O’Hare to the future of public transit and freight Come be part of the conversation. Link in bio 🚊🚙🚛🚲

Congrats to @cmitchellforlg We spoke about the old US Steel site becoming a quantum foundry on the south side of Chicago, with good jobs at every level of education 🇺🇸 ⚛️ "Could be the same type of industry like US Steel that we end up exporting all around the world”

Coming soon 🎙️ Four generations of @NHLBlackhawks ownership. Now, a new neighborhood I sat down with @dannywirtz to talk about his vision of turning the parking lots around the United Center into the 1901 Project, with a 6,000-seat Music Hall, hotel, plazas, and retail Full conversation soon @landonsloop

Asked @cmitchellforlg what it will take to make getting around Chicago even better, from @Waymo to NITA The new transit bill is a start. But the goal should be a world-class system like you see in Germany and London, where people take the train no matter how much money they make Christian is keynoting Chicago Builds: Third Rail on November 12. Come hear the rest 🔗 landonsloop.com/p/christian-…

WE'RE LIVE: Illinois Lieutenant Governor candidate @cmitchellforlg joins to talk about energy, AI demand, transit, housing and the new quantum campus on the old US Steel site, plus what founders can do to shape policy in Illinois 📺 youtube.com/watch?v=sdDJ_LZK… Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:22 Growing Up in Maywood 1:35 What Was Christian Mitchell Like in His 20s? 2:42 Mom's Two Rules: Purpose and Discipline 3:37 Building CEJA and Did It Work? 6:52 Data Centers and Community Concerns 9:10 What Hyperscalers Owe Communities 10:43 Why Illinois Leads on Solar and Storage 11:42 The New Illinois AI Cabinet 12:59 Founders: Bring Fixes, Not Complaints 14:20 Inside the $45B Rebuild Illinois Plan 16:37 Making Chicago Transit World Class 18:19 Safety on the CTA 19:23 Housing Affordability 20:58 The Best Idea Wins, Even If It's Not Yours 23:02 Hiring and Saying Yes to @JBPritzker 24:35 What He Learned From Pritzker 26:06 Illinois in One Word 27:48 From Steel to Quantum @landonsloop

WE'RE LIVE: @1871tech's CEO Betsy Ziegler talks about how Chicago’s flagship startup hub went from a 100,000 square foot home at the Merchandise Mart to something bigger than any address: infrastructure for the city’s founders We talked leaving the Mart, SpotHero’s exit, Chicago’s next big categories, and her health journey to six months of remission 📺 youtube.com/watch?v=xb3vwLxj… Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:28 My first memory of 1871 1:18 The Momentum Awards speech 2:56 Leaving the Merchandise Mart 5:25 How Betsy communicated the move 7:31 The rumor that 1871 shut down 8:23 1871 as infrastructure, not an address 11:41 Who 1871 serves today 14:07 Programming and convening the right rooms 16:48 Campus 1871 and keeping students in Chicago 19:31 SpotHero’s acquisition by Uber 21:13 Chicago’s next breakout categories 23:13 Civic role and tech policy 25:46 Betsy’s health journey 29:19 Remission, clarity, and legacy @BetsyZEO @landonsloop

CHICAGO: November 12th with Waymo, Ford, Lyft, O’Hare Flyer, and more Bringing together 200 founders and policymakers to discuss the future of transportation in Chicago 🚊 🚙 🚴🚛 Link below @landonsloop

Back in college, I used to borrow the @1871tech podcast space. It was my introduction to Chicago tech Recently, I sat down with CEO @BetsyZEO to talk about 1871’s next chapter and how cancer shaped her outlook on life and leadership Coming soon @landonsloop

Chicago has 39 data centers. What are they powering and are the public's biggest fears true? Brad Tietz from the Data Center Coalition (@DCC_org) helped write the 2019 Illinois data center incentive He joins to talk water, jobs, electricity bills, Chicago's proposed moratorium, and what the next decade of data centers in Chicago should look like 📺 youtu.be/cBt8MpxgARA 0:00 Intro 0:30 What's Changed Since The 2019 Illinois Incentive 2:50 Rewriting the Incentive for the AI Era 4:50 Chicago's 39 Data Centers and Who They Serve 6:53 Why the Non-AI Story Isn't Being Told 8:37 Do Residents Actually Feel Tax Revenue 11:13 Myth #1: Data Centers Drink All Our Water 14:38 Myth #2: Data Centers Don't Create Jobs 16:34 Myth #3: Data Centers Are Raising Electric Bills 20:03 NDAs, Transparency, and Regulation 22:01 Chicago's Next Decade: AI Inference and Smaller Sites 24:16 The Chicago Moratorium and Springfield's Framework 28:18 Is the City Bringing Industry Leaders to the Table? 29:13 Historical Comparisons: Rail, Fracking, and 5G

🎙️ Next up on @landonsloop My conversation with Brad Tietz of the Data Center Coalition @DCC_org 🗄️ 🗄️ 🗄️ Brad helped pass the Illinois data center incentive in 2019 We spoke about what's changed since: - $16B in data center investment in Illinois from 2019 to 2024 - Illinois went from top 3 in the country to outside the top 10 by some rankings - Only 25% of data center workloads are AI. The rest is cloud, banks, hospitals, trading firms, schools - Most of Chicago's 39 data centers are small edge sites, not giant AI campuses - City Colleges and College of DuPage now run 8-week data center certificates that lead to $120k+ jobs Plus the myths everyone keeps repeating about data centers

Speakers at Chicago Builds: Third Rail on Nov 12 ​Lara Dailey, @Waymo Dave Lundy and Kristi Lafleur, @ohareflyer Audrey Wennink, @Metroplanners ​Kevin Green, OTR Transportation ​Michael Fassnacht, @ClaycoInc ​Alderman Red Burnett, 27th Ward ​Kristi Dula, @IllinoisDCEO ​Lou Raizin, Cultural Stadium ​Will Jenkins, @journeydelivers ​More to be announced!

Today’s @landonsloop Planes, Trains, and Automobiles landonsloop.com/p/ohareflyer

Downtown to O'Hare in 15 minutes. That's the promise of @ohareflyer I sat down with CEO Dave Lundy to talk about what it takes to pull off this $2B project in Chicago We spoke why Boring Company never happened and how this project is funded without taking money from the CTA or Metra 📺 youtu.be/gZvIf-CxBAA See Dave speak at Chicago Builds: Third Rail on Nov 12: luma.com/78iclzrl 0:00 Intro 0:30 How do you market a 15-minute train to O'Hare 2:39 Why past attempts like the Boring Company failed 3:56 Battery-electric trains every 15 minutes, no freight delays 5:42 Old Post Office to O'Hare Terminal 2 6:48 New European-style track on existing freight routes 8:06 Project labor agreement and 1,500 construction jobs 9:35 More HQs, conventions and easy layovers 11:05 Safety, full-height gates and ticket price 12:40 No CTA or Metra money: private funding and federal loans 15:14 Where the money is coming from 16:50 Why no Midway Flyer 18:46 Working with the mayor, CDA, CDOT and IDOT 19:42 Downtown station reveal and final rail agreements 21:10 The founding team 23:20 How big things get done 26:05 The 2031 headline

CHICAGO BUILDS: THIRD RAIL 🚊🚊🚊 A summit exploring the future of autonomy, freight, micromobility, and rail in Chicago In partnership with @waymo November 12 in Chicago 🔗 luma.com/78iclzrl

Chicagooooooooo We’re getting the world’s biggest supercomputing and HPC conference next month So we’re running a local AI hackathon right before @Supercomputing Partnering with @CtrlIQ @nvidia @VAST_Data @moonlite @Lenovo at @drivecapital Apply: luma.com/local-ai-hack-chica…

It shouldn’t take an hour to get to O’Hare 🚊 @ohareflyer wants to cut the trip from downtown to 15 minutes with a battery-powered express train, expected to launch in 2031 I sat down with founder & CEO Dave Lundy to break down the plan Coming soon @landonsloop