After being held up for eight years by political issues, work on the Navy Pier Marina has finally started. The marina should open to boaters for the first time in 2025.The Chicago Sun-Times said that the $16 million project, which was first proposed in 2016, broke ground in early November and will continue through the winter. The general builder for the marina, which will be built on the north side of Navy Pier and hold 150 boats, was named J.F. Brennan of Ottawa, Illinois.
WGN says that Randy Podolsky, the real estate executive who was driving the project, had a hard time when former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration refused to give them the permit they needed, saying that they were worried about security because the project was close to the Jardine Water Purification Plant. But her replacement as mayor, Brandon Johnson, overturned the decision, which finally let the marina’s growth go forward.
There are things to do at the port for both short stays and longer ones. At Navy Pier, boaters will be able to tie up for an hour at a time to eat or take in the view, and they will also have the choice of mooring for one or more nights. According to The Chicago Sun-Times, planned features include hookups for power and water, Wi-Fi, waste pump-out services, and a two-story building made from old shipping containers that have been reused. There will be bathrooms, showers, a boater’s lounge, a ship’s store, and a bicycle repair station in this building.
The hard work that went into finishing the project shows how people can keep going even when politics get in the way. “This important step marks the end of years of hard work, persistence, and dedication to this project,” Podolsky said in a news release. Podolsky, a real estate executive who also volunteers with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, was able to get Navy Pier’s president and CEO, Marilynn Gardner, to back her. “This is a dream that has been in the works for years,” Gardner said, pointing out that the possible boating access would be a big plus for boaters in the area as well as for the shops on Navy Pier.
There will be updates on the progress of the work on the marina’s own platform. Soon, the reservation system will also be available on the same platform. “It shouldn’t be this hard. This is what the community wants. This is what Navy Pier wants. Along the way, it was hard to work with officials, but they all say they wanted it. “It’s the truth of life. It should never have been this hard,” Podolsky said about the years of opposition and lawsuits he had to go through. Boaters in Chicago can now look forward to a new addition to the city’s waterfront amenities. The legal issues have been settled, and building has begun.
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