All right, readers, time to test your knowledge of Chicago politics.
Now a new TIF district, called the Calumet River TIF, has been proposed for the area that runs roughly from 134th Street south to 138th and from Torrence Avenue west to the Bishop Ford Expressway. At the moment, much of the land in the proposed district is either vacant or underdeveloped; a big chunk of it is an old Waste Management landfill. Under a city proposal, the TIF would fund up to $25 million in infrastructure and improvements, including a brand-new marina.
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Pacella owns Pacella Trucking Express, at 2558 S. Damen, which according to a Sun-Times investigation in 2005 received about $50,000 from the city for trucking work. Pacella was an investor in Crown Casino Corp., a gaming business that, as the Sun-Times reported, tried unsuccessfully in the 1990s to acquire a riverboat casino license in Illinois; among the other investors in that company was Fred Barbara. (Barbara’s a friend of Mayor Daley’s whose grandfather, Bruno Roti Sr., was identified as a mob boss by federal authorities and whose uncle, former First Ward alderman Fred Roti, was convicted of racketeering.) According to a bio posted on the Web site of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Pacella, Barbara, and Bonomo grew up together in Bridgeport and have teamed up to own racehorses.
Olsen’s marina has 24 slips and a hopping if careworn bar. “We may not be pretty, but our customers like us,” says Olsen. “We’re open all year round. We’re kind of a working-class business. Most of our customers are working-class guys.”
Olsen’s operation is a bit untidy. Some of the boat sheds are sagging and in need of a paint job. The city has ticketed him in the past for accumulating excess debris on the property—behind the bar are piles of wood, old cars he’s storing for friends, and boats he stores for the winter. The marina is well off the main drag, Torrence, and only accessible by dirt roads that are rarely used by anyone but boaters.
Sunset Marina’s owners are mostly staying quiet. Pacella didn’t return my calls, and Mirkhaef referred me to Bonomo. Bonomo told me he didn’t know anything about why the TIF was being created or what was planned for Olsen’s property. “You know more about it than I do,” he said. “I’m learning more from you than I knew.”
Which means that sometime within the next year or so, lawyers for the city could very well offer Olsen something for his property. If he turns it down, they’ll take him to court to seize it under eminent domain law.
