The City of Chicago, the Chicago Fire Football Club, Alderman Jason Ervin (28th Ward), and the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) announced the signing of a ground lease for a new training facility for Chicago’s Major League Soccer (MLS) team in the Roosevelt Square neighborhood on the Near West Side. As part of the long-term lease agreement, the Fire will finance the development of the multi-million-dollar facility and provide an $8M community investment to be used for the rehabilitation and preservation of nearby CHA housing and the creation of indoor and outdoor community spaces. Additionally, the Fire will provide long-term employment for community members, resources for minority and women-owned businesses, free sports programming for local youth, community green spaces, and more.  The lease is estimated to generate $40M in revenue for CHA over the next 40 years, and CHA will use proceeds to invest in its housing mission, including ABLA Brooks Homes, Loomis Courts, and Williams Jones. Construction on the training facility is anticipated to begin later this spring. The new facility will feature a 53,000 square-foot, two-story performance center, two-and-a-half hybrid grass pitches and three synthetic turf pitches, providing a world-class training environment for the Fire’s professional and Academy players and staff. The 23.3-acre site is generally bounded by Roosevelt Road, Ashland Avenue, 14th Street, and Loomis Street. The site was previously occupied by portions of CHA’s former ABLA Homes, which is already in the process of being replaced by the mixed-income Roosevelt Square community as part of CHA’s ongoing commitment to develop mixed-income, mixed-use housing.