The Trib is reporting that Block 37 has arisen as a potential location for a casino, along with McCormick Place East (Lakeside Center). If anything, McCormick North is more optimally designed for a casino: a giant, windowless box. McCormick East may be woefully underused, but the monumental curtainwall of the current building should be maintained. (One good reason to not open McCormick East for 24-hour operation is migratory bird fatalities: until McPier began turning off the building’s nighttime lights a few years back, its lakeside facade lured hundreds of birds each year to their deaths. Birds don’t understand glass [why should they?] and fly full speed into the wall, breaking their necks. Good for the Field Museum, which has cabinets filled with the resulting [stuffed] carcasses; not so good for the birds.)

Of course, maybe the gaming hall could fit into the giant masonry podium underneath. I have no idea what’s inside that bunker, besides some very long ramps to ground level.

And where would a casino fit at Block 37? Underground? Casinos don’t like multistory layouts, even less than big box retailers.

Speaking of which, the frequent media complaints about few identified tenants strike me as silly. Mills has relationships with literally thousands of tenants and specialty shop space in the last proposals was already spoken for by a variety of “lifestyle” chains. Sure, a few of the bigger users–Office Depot, Barnes & Noble — have tired of waiting and found other locations on State. But being across from Field’s flagship, in the heart of the second largest office market in the country, will get tenants on board.