With few visitors, Navy Pier to close down again to save money (Chicago)

Chicago Tribune ^ | Aug 18, 2020 | Steve Johnson

[texas booster]

Navy Pier will close again rather than fight for the comparatively few visitors willing to venture onto the partially reopened lakeside destination amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The human-made structure jutting into Lake Michigan and lined with restaurants, carnival rides and cultural destinations — many of them still closed — will shut down again Sept. 8 and stay shut until spring in order to save money and protect the attraction’s long-term financial health, pier officials announced Tuesday morning.

“We are only seeing about 15 to 20% of the attendance that we would typically see this time of year, which is also typically our busiest time of the year,” said Marilynn Gardner, pier president and CEO. “We need to do this now to get to the other side of the pandemic.”

Closing as the weather turns colder and visitorship typically decreases will help the pier limit its losses in a year when the not-for-profit entity was already projecting falling $20 million short of anticipated revenues. That’s more than a third of last year’s $58.9 million take, according to the executive.

Navy Pier’s plan to go back into shutdown mode marks the most notable retreat by a Chicago institution in the battle to restart public life amid the economic devastation wrought by COVID-19, which forced most city and state public spaces to close in mid-March in order to try to stop the spread of the virus.

[texas booster]

And revenues from the pier’s 70 tenants chip in another 26% in a normal year, but since the March shutdown, the pier has been working with the shops, restaurants and the two big cultural institutions, the never-reopened Chicago Children’s Museum and Chicago Shakespeare, to provide rent relief.

Even those restaurants with outdoor spaces that have been able to open back up from the June 10 restart have not drawn enough business to reach the points in their contracts where the pier starts getting a percentage of revenues, Gardner said.

[texas booster]

Gee, that CoViD-19 is sure one magical virus.

And not a single mention in the Trib about the crime that has destroyed downtown Chicago.

Nope, it's all the fault of the virii.

[texas booster]

Visits are down 93% year-to-year from the Pier’s 8 key “feeder states” of Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin, said Gardner. The visits from Illinois are down 79%, while the proportion of in-state visitors is up by 66%. Those who are coming, in other words, are primarily locals.

So it's all the fault of out of state visitors, who object to not only, being separated from their wallets in the traditional method of the Chicago visitors tax, but to being mugged and assaulted - with no help from the local woke DA.

[mylife]

Oh Noes! TGI Fridays Closed? /S

[mylife]

Oh Noes! TGI Fridays Closed? /S

[gibsonguy]

Pity, one of the few cool things left in Chicago. They have a terrific painted glass museum there.

[Lurker]

Embrace the suck, Chicago.

L

[texas booster]

From Second City Cop:

Let's see if they trim any of the bloated six-figure salaries of the connected class rather than just laying off the hourly (and predominantly minority) workers.

But Well Done Groot! Along with....

Macy's moving out
hundreds of conventions bailing out
$1.6 billion (and counting) in lost hotel revenues
concerts and shows that cannot be made up

....and other rumored shutdowns/lease-breaking on tap, you've completely doomed Chicago in record time.

I generally do not enjoy visiting the major cities (almost always for work), but I could get in my 10k steps with a walk to the Pier.

And the scenery was always nice ...

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Now, a target rich environment for Aunt Teefa and BLM “peaceful” protestors.

[Brasky]

Jay Bee and Groot ain’t even trying to find an exit strategy to end the stupid and short sighted forced shutdown. I truly despise this state. Let it rot. I don’t care.

[Dilbert San Diego]

It sounds as if people are afraid to go to Chicago.

The recent rioting on the upscale Magnificent Mile is certainly not going to help. I think that shakes people to the core, to think that upscale areas are targeted by criminals.

[Blurb2350]

Yep, it’s all the fault of those out-of-state visitors — you know, the ones who bring in all those guns and then leave them behind for the local denizens to use to shoot toddlers in their strollers and the elderly out watering their lawn in the evening.

[cnsmom]

The Obama Library will never be built ever.

[Tallguy]

Just what I’d want to do as a shopper/tourist... walk out onto a pier surrounded by deep water when the riots start at the base of the pier. Everybody in the water!

[stylin19a]

Thanks for the ping.

I remember when it was just a pier and there was a Quonset hut type building that had basketball courts. We had to play our way to the #1 court then try and hold it. I was one of the only white guys there at the time - back in the mid 60s...photo is from WW2...I don't remember it being that long...



The make-over to what it is today was incredible and it was always crowded.

Besides the current Antifa & BLM... A recent problem is, if you park too far away and walked, (rather than park in their lot) you risk the chance of being mugged by 'thugs'.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

No riots here at Lake of the Ozarks.
Boating, swimming, good chow...

[Bernard]

It's not just the walk on the pier; it's how do you get there, and where do you park if you drive?

Besides, "everything" is shut down in Illinois. My wife and I just went to Lamb's Farm last week Friday; the place was almost deserted. We had lunch at 12:15 in the restaurant and were the only customers in the one room that leads to the outdoor seating, which was empty. And the only reason we drove over an hour to get there was because my wife has been home every day since March and needed to get out of the house. That location was one of the few things available.

THE WHOLE STATE IS ON LOCKDOWN, PEOPLE. Navy Pier is not an exception, it's the new normal in Pritzker's Paradise.

[jaydubya2]

I remember when the Silversides was docked there.

[hanamizu]

“...The human-made structure jutting into Lake Michigan...”

---

The writer had to explain that the Navy Pier is a ‘human-made structure’? Does he describe the ‘Sears (Willis) tower is a human-made structure jutting into the sky’?

I also note that he didn’t use ‘man-made’—down with the patriarchy!

[EC Washington]

Hey Chicago Tribune! Your leftist Rag supported Lighthead and continue to be her mouthpiece - you are getting what you asked for.