5-Nov-15 – If you had a favorite place along the new Riverwalk this year, be prepared for it to not be there in 2016. Any doubt that the city is open to any and all ideas on how to put the Riverwalk to work, was clarified on Wednesday at a meeting of prospective concession operators.

About 40 people attended the meeting at City Hall. The audience ranged from operators of some of this year’s 14 concessions, whose season on the Riverwalk ended on November 1, to new faces.

“This is a clean slate, a fresh start,” said Michelle Woods, project manager for the city’s Department of Fleet and Facility Management, or “2FM” for short, “so we’re looking for proposals for all locations.”

Woods said the city is negotiating with a “master operator” that will take over management of concessions. Because that operator may want different vendors, the city is offering contracts for just one year. Because any vendor serving alcohol on the Riverwalk needs a special liquor license that happens to have a two-year term, the city may extend some contracts one additional year.

(Left) A worker at lower right watches a crane dump crushed stone onto the Riverwalk west of LaSalle Street. The rocks will back-fill the area, displacing water. The edges of the Riverwalk are now defined by the sheet piling, driven into the riverbed, forming a river wall.

At minimum, a concession would have to be open on Memorial Day – which is May 30 in 2016 – and close for the year no earlier than October 1, but the city wants the Riverwalk to have year-round programming and will consider “tented winter events.”

And while the city might organize free concerts on the Riverwalk, like it did this year, Woods says they are hoping vendors can take that over.

“You may have heard we have a bit of a budget problem,” said Woods (right). “We could try to do programming again, we think it was pretty well received by people. However, we are looking for proposals that do offer entertainment themselves. So if you’re a food and beverage establishment, if you also have your own Wednesday concerts, those would be the kinds of things the committee would be looking at favorably.”

Concerts would have to be over by 8:30 p.m., as a new city ordinance bans amplified music on the Riverwalk past that time.

Practical questions cover permits, utilities, and restrooms

Prospective vendors asked about new restrooms on the Riverwalk, sewage and water connections, building permits, health inspections, signage, loading areas, and snow removal. They wanted to know if kitchen equipment could be installed, if their build-out could extend under Wacker Drive, and if non-union contractors could be used.

While Woods tried to lower expectations about kitchen equipment, she did announce that electricity is coming to the Riverwalk east of Michigan Avenue. The area does have street lights but it has lacked electrical connections.

Proposals are due at noon on December 2. After that, a committee appointed by 2FM will evaluate the proposals and make recommendations to 2FM commissioner David Reynolds. He and the city’s budget director, Alexandra Holt, will then make the final selections.

Woods says that will probably happen in January, and they hope to be negotiating contracts with concession operators in February.

(Left) Riverwalk construction west of Wells Street on Wednesday, as seen from Merchandise Mart.

Phase 3 to be finished next fall

By this time next year, the entire Riverwalk should be complete, and Woods says the city will be looking for concessions at that time for Phase 3 of the Riverwalk. Work is underway now to extend the Riverwalk three more blocks, from LaSalle Street to Lake Street.

Most of the current work is on the two blocks between LaSalle and Franklin, with the last stretch being used for parking and storage.

Between Wells and Franklin, workers are installing caissons and steel “H piles” that will anchor the Riverwalk. Oswaldo Chaves, project manager for Chicago Department of Transportation, says that work will take another three weeks. Workers are also back-filling with crushed stone the areas behind new river walls formed by steel sheets.

Work happening soon includes forming concrete foundations, installing sewer lines, and some demolition.