Chicago City Wire

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) asked for $40 million assistance if it's not allowed to reopen by January 2022.

Larita Clark, CEO of MPEA, sought these appropriations for fiscal year 2022 from the Senate Appropriations - Revenue and Finance Committee at a hearing April 14.

"Looking at our budget and knowing that we are not certain when we will be allowed to open, what we're asking is for the state to provide us with $15 million in operating assistance if we are allowed to begin operating in July of this year," Clark said. "If for some reason we’re not allowed to open until January of 2022 – based on our budget – we're estimating that we would appreciate assistance of $40 million.”

According to Clark, the MPEA has not hosted any events since March of last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been 223 event cancellations since then, which represents approximately $3 billion in losses for the state.

The MPEA has been generating approximately $1.9 billion annually in revenue for the state and $150 million in local taxes before the pandemic began. Clark pointed out that the authority had received incentive grants from fiscal year 2012 through 2017 which allowed the authority “to remain and to be on a level playing field with our competition.”

The MPEA is a municipal corporation created by the Illinois General Assembly. It owns McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America. Sen. Don Harmon’s  Senate Bill 438 would make “appropriations for the ordinary and contingent expenses of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2021."