SOUTH CHICAGO — Activists disrupted this week’s public meeting on the redevelopment of the old South Works steel mill in the latest sign of deep distrust over promises made about the project.
The former U.S. Steel South Works, 8080 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, is set to be redeveloped by Related Midwest into the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park.
The multibillion-dollar, 128-acre project will include a quantum research campus, a new Advocate Health hospital, single-family housing and improved access to lakefront parks, the developers have said.
IBM, tech startup PsiQuantum and the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have announced plans to set up shop at the quantum campus. Developers have touted the project’s potential to transform South Chicago and surrounding neighborhoods after decades of divestment, while vowing that longtime residents would benefit.
But neighbors’ concerns over displacement, gentrification and the environmental impacts of construction — all of which are concerns that have not been subject to a formal agreement between developers and city officials — boiled over during a tense meeting Tuesday.
Local leaders “are able to go and make agreements with these corporations [for 30-year tax breaks] — what about us?” one attendee asked Tom Anderson, the city’s economic development director and the meeting’s host.
“Make these agreements, put it in writing, and then you’ll get our support,” the attendee said.
Following a quick presentation on general project updates, protesters disrupted the meeting to give impromptu speeches, question Anderson and demand that all questions be answered in front of all attendees, rather than in small groups as planned.
Some protesters held signs reading “Don’t Poison Us,” referencing fears of contamination on the former steel mill property, and “Don’t Displace Us.” Some wore shirts for the environmental justice group Environment, Transportation, Health and Open Space, known as ETHOS.
The city and developers eventually abandoned their plans for breakout rooms and held an open Q&A session for the rest of the meeting.
As the demonstration ended and the formal Q&A began, one ETHOS member asked Anderson whether the city would facilitate a meeting between residents and Related Midwest to negotiate a community benefits agreement. Anderson did not answer.
The campaign for a benefits agreement, led by the Coalition for a South Works CBA, predates Related Midwest’s proposal for the site.
Anderson pointed to youth programs like Saturday Morning Quantum, the development of affordable housing — some of it through nearby but unrelated projects, including Thrive Exchange and Galleria 89 — and pre-apprenticeship and other job training programs as examples of the backers’ efforts to “make sure this creates opportunities for residents.”
“We are committed to delivering benefits for the community,” he said.
But those points, repeated often in the months since the development’s announcement, did little to win over protesters and other attendees who pressed city officials and developers throughout the night.
Neighbors’ skepticism around the development is rooted in decades of broken promises, from past failed South Works redevelopment proposals to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ now-abandoned plan to expand its lakefront dump for polluted sediment. The latter reneged on a pledge to cap the dump and restore it to park land when full.
South Siders “can’t even trust people when they sign something,” said Marie Collins-Wright, of the Jeffery Manor Community Revitalization Council, referring to the dump plans. “This is why you’re getting pushback.”
“I’ve been a community organizer for 30 years, and I haven’t seen a community benefits agreement; I haven’t seen people hold up their end of the bargain,” South Chicago resident Felena Bunn said. “When you are in a Black and Brown community, you come in here and do whatever you want in the way that you want. … How do we trust you?”
Anderson responded, “We acknowledge that trust is always a challenge, but it’s particularly a challenge in this community that has experienced environmental injustices in the past, and a community … that has had so many broken promises and hopes dashed in terms of opportunities for [the South Works] site.”
Project backers touted their community engagement process — which has included five city-led public meetings since August — after Tuesday’s meeting.
“Since the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park was announced last summer, the team and its partners have led a community engagement process to ensure South Chicago residents are heard and their questions addressed through dozens of meetings attended by hundreds of participants in coordination with local business, advocacy and community-based organizations,” spokesperson Lara Cooper said in a statement.
Residents also raised concerns about unearthing slag, contaminated soil and other byproducts of the steelmaking process during the campus’s construction, as well as the effects on the surrounding neighborhood of transporting pollution from the site during its remediation.
Developers said Tuesday they will put the site through a new round of environmental reviews and cleanups until the state determines no further action is needed.
The site was remediated under U.S. Steel’s ownership and has received “no further remediation” letters from the state in the past. The letters are given when state environmental regulators confirm site conditions “do not present a significant risk to human health or the environment.”
That “gives us confidence” that the site is OK to build on, but “I recognize that doesn’t provide safety for the community [during future remediation and construction] and it doesn’t assure there’s absolutely no contamination,” Anderson said.
Related Midwest “will enroll the entire site in the [Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s] Site Remediation Program to ensure full compliance with all environmental regulations and obtain updated No Further Remediation letters” and will “conduct any further remediation that’s required,” spokesperson Amanda Cienkus said in a statement.
What’s The Project’s Status?
U.S. Steel has not yet sold the property to the developers, Anderson said. The past two months have been “a tumultuous time, and that shows its impacts on something like closing the property here,” but officials have “no concerns” about finalizing a deal, he said.
“It’s just a matter of timing,” Anderson said.
The developers are still eyeing a spring groundbreaking for the project’s first phase, which is expected to be completed in 2027.
Attendee Dennis Corpus asked whether President Donald Trump’s aggressive cuts to all aspects of U.S. governance, combined with his ongoing lawsuit against Chicago and Illinois over sanctuary policies, could threaten the project’s future.
“Trump has supported quantum in the past,” and the city and developers “remain confident that elected officials across country see the value of quantum,” Anderson said.
Yet if the Trump administration were to pull its defense funding for quantum research, that would “change the nature of the project,” he said, but it wouldn’t “unwind the project entirely,” given the private funding lined up from PsiQuantum, IBM and others.
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