The Railyards

The Railyards is a proposed district covering more than 80 acres of active railroad property along the western edge of the Chicago River, running south of Roosevelt Road to roughly 18th Street on the site of Amtrak's 14th Street Coach Yard. Backed by Justin Ishbia, the billionaire who holds an agreement to buy the Chicago White Sox after the 2034 season, the plan would be anchored by a new riverfront ballpark drawn in a vintage brick idiom, with a riverwalk along its eastern edge and a public plaza to its north linked to a commercial building by a skybridge. Around the ballpark, the concept lays out transit-oriented residential and commercial buildings, retail and dining, open space, and a Northwestern Medicine health care facility. Initial concept design is by AECOM. Realizing the district depends on relocating Amtrak's coach yard and maintenance operation to the Bridgeport rail yard next to Rate Field, a roughly $900 million replacement facility toward which Ishbia has committed more than $125 million alongside $696 million in federal transportation grants. The site sits directly across the South Branch from The 78, the 62-acre neighborhood Related Midwest is building on the opposite bank.