CHICAGO—Five months after the Chicago Bulls announced the team would leave its current practice facility, the Barto Center in Deerfield, Ill., the team has identified a new location on Chicago’s West Side.
Parking Lot J, between Monroe and Madison streets, is the new site for a 55,000-square-foot new facility. The lot is across from the United Center, where the Bulls play their games. The team said in June that it would be beneficial to move to a location closer to where the games are played, rather than long bus rides through traffic to get to games.
Plans for the new facility remain in development and the project, which will be funded completely by the Bulls, is scheduled for completion in time for the 2014-2015 season. The firm 360 Architects has been selected as the lead project architect, and McHugh Construction has been named the general contractor.
Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf credited Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for pushing his city to host the practice facility. “He thought centralizing our team assets inside the city limits would be a demonstration of our ongoing commitment to Chicago,” Reinsdorf said in a statement. “We had been contemplating how to address the growing demands on our current practice facility for awhile, so the mayor’s timing and ours made sense.”
The Bulls have practiced at the Sheri L. Berto Center since 1992. The team intends to sell the current practice facility, which also includes offices for coaches and operations staff.