News
Last Days of Daley
May 12, 2011
| After 21 years, Mayor Richard M. Daley leaves City Hall when Rahm Emanuel is inaugurated on Monday. What that means for commercial real estate is still TBD, says CoStar's Brian Kerns, a Rahm supporter. | |||
 | |||
| "Rahm's main focus is education, and once that gets fixed, we'll be able to bring in more business, more jobs, and more real estate," Brian tells us. But what's still up in the air is how Rahm will deal with zoning issues, which were mostly handled by individual aldermen under the Daley administration. Another big question:property taxes. They're essential to good schools but often a hot button issue for business. Zeller Realty Group's Bob Six, also president of BOMA/Chicago, says Rahm will have a challenging budget deficit ahead of him, with the latest figure placing the city $600M in debt. He encourages the new mayor to come to the business community for help. | |||
 | |||
| We also chatted with Cassandra Francis, an independent real estate pro who worked on the Olympic Village during the bid for the 2016 games. She tells some of Daley's biggest contributions outside of the Olympic run include the "vision and fortitude" to follow through with building Millennium Park, and making the city one of the greenest in the world in landscape and architecture. | |||
