Deal to Sell Midway Officially Dead
By Kevin Robinson in News on Apr 21, 2009 2:20PM
Mayor Daley's dream of leasing Midway Airport finally came crashing down for good Monday, as news that the consortium of private investors led by Citibank notified the city over the weekend that they had failed to line up the financing necessary to close the deal. As a result of MidCo's failure to obtain the $2.5 billion in credit necessary to lease the airport, the City of Chicago will retain the $126 million in earnest money the consortium put up.
Although the South side airport will remain in public hands for the foreseeable future, the city hasn't taken the idea of leasing it to a private company off the table. "We still retain the right to competitively offer the Midway transaction again, down the road, when financial market conditions improve," City Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold said. "Stock markets, real estate markets, infrastructure asset markets go up and down over time. We've tried to complete this transaction at a time where values had declined somewhat," he said. "With a global recovery in the economy and improving liquidity in credit market conditions, there's no reason to believe we won't get back to a point where this makes sense in the future." Last September Mayor Daley announced that the deal wouldn't die, in spite of the global credit crisis. "Everybody thought ... the deal was dead a month ago. There were rumors running around City Hall and every place. You heard it: The deal is dead. Nothing's gonna happen," Daley told the Sun-Times then. "We're on the cutting edge. If you're not creative in an economic crisis for your city, where are you gonna get the infrastructure money to compete?"