How much has Millennium Park cost Chicago to build?
When Millennium Park opens on July 16th, you will get your first official look at how the City spent $475 million to design and build this park. The project is over budget by $350 million and four years behind schedule. Millennium Park was initially budgeted at $150 million – less than one-third its actual cost. Originally, the City promised that revenue bonds that were issued for $120 million would be used to finance the project, and paid back by income from the parking garage. Private donors were to make up the original difference in costs. However, by the middle of the year, the financing for this project was growing and the City was looking to the Central Loop TIF fund to provide some of the funding for the park. In the spring of 1999 the city issued $33 million of additional bonds (the year before it had sold $137 million, $17 million more than its initial $120 million estimate), banking that the garage would generate enough revenues to pay off the higher amount. The park is owned
