The government will pay $280 million in rent to a Near West Side Chicago property for an FBI Headquarters, and in the process will line the pockets of a major Obama donor and the United States 38th Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker.
Penny Pritzker has been a top campaign fundraiser for President Obama, together with developer is Jack Higgins, who once backed former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. The building has a 14 year lease, and comes at double the price paid to build the complex at 2111 Roosevelt Rd.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at office@jewishbusinessnews.com.
Thank you.
Higgins Development was awarded the lucrative project. Pritzker Realty Group owns a sizeable stake in Higgins Development. Although Higgins Development Group defaulted on a loan to Pritzker, the latter pushed the FBI building project under Higgins’ name, according to some reports. The Chicago FBI offices cost $125 million to build. While there were lower bidders, Higgins said politics played no part in this project, “There just isn’t politics involved in these things, ” said Higgins, who scolded people for “trying to pollute the process with this kind of inference.”
Pritzker has played a pivotal role in the Obama Administration, and chaired the National Campaign Finance Committee during his 2008 Presidential run, with fundraising efforts that topped $750 million. She managed to raise $500, 000 for Obama’s re-election campaign, and became Commerce Secretary in 2013.
