Cubs Want Pedestrian Bridge Linking Hotel With Wrigley
(CBS) – Cubs owners are asking for permission to build a pedestrian bridge that would link a future hotel to Wrigley Field as part of ballpark-redevelopment negotiations they're having with City Hall, CBS 2 has learned.
The proposed pedestrian bridge would cross Clark Street and dramatically change the look of Wrigleyville.
The steel and wrought-iron structure -- similar to the Old Town arches over sidewalks on Wells Street -- would take fans from the new hotel and plaza across to the ballpark and triangle office and entertainment complex.
The Cubs reportedly want all this to be part of the deal being negotiated. But Mayor Rahm Emanuel, commenting on the talks for the first time in a week, says that's not the way things work.
"We're just working on the details, and I want the conversation to -- as we're making very good progress -- just finish it now, so we can take it to the second stage, which is the submission to the planning development process," Emanuel said Thursday.
The negotiations between Cubs owners and the city have continued in recent days with no deal.
Night games, parking, rooftop views are all being thrown into the mix. And as the mayor says, the two sides are close.
But it won't be until that second stage, the planning and development review, that the Cubs would get final approval for the whole project.
"I don't think there is one sticking point," Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts told Levine later Thursday. "I think there are a number of moving parts."
