Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Portage mayor Austin Bonta talks Bears stadium site proposal called 'Halas Harbor'

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris were joined by Portage, Ind. mayor Austin Bonta to discuss his city's pitch to lure the Bears to build a new stadium there.

This hour is sponsored by Riverfront Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram. Welcome to Hollis Harbor. Right here on the Chicago Land Shoreline, a fully privately financed site, zero taxpayer burden, zero debt on the team, zero compromise. Our offer to the Bears is to use this rent-free. Set minutes from major highways, a dedicated rail stop, and the shoreline itself, designed for arrival, access and safety. The capital is ready.

The land is available now. Shovels can be in the ground as soon as June, 2026. The only variable left is the decision to move forward. That was the Portage Park sizzle reel is what I would like to call it. The Portage Indiana sizzle reel that we saw and that they sent to us here at 104.3,

the score. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie. And the Portage Indiana Mayor Austin Bonta is kind enough to join us now live. via the Circus Sports Illinois hotline, download the circus sports app today, and you heard the pitch to be able to have a stadium funded where the bears and the public don't have to deal with the cost. And he's on Twitch.

Mayor Bonta, thank you for joining us on Twitch.Twitch.Tvys slash The Score, Chicago. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Really excited to be here. Great to be able to talk about the city. And more importantly right now, I think talking about the bears and what I hope is the best offer for them.

Well, and you know what? You guys sent us mail. And so when you send an email and you send a pitch, we are reading and we are listening. So thank you for sending us the video. Thank you for sending us the information. Number one, how do you feel that your pitch was received when you had the press conference yesterday announcing this plan?

I think it's been received tremendously and with great interest. It was already making some news as of Monday. And then, of course, the Tuesday morning. And it was as that attention was growing, We felt it was very important to get the facts out, give the opportunity to get questions answered. And that's where we, you know, called a press conference. And it was exciting to see so much interest from the media to be able to come out and learn about what the city has to offer to the bears, to fans, and to the whole Chicago land region. I'm really curious as to how this came about.

Can you tell us the initial steps? I mean, was this you being approached by someone? Was this you understanding that the Bears didn't have a home to see if you guys? to see if you can get in the mix. How did this start? So it really started back in January of 2024 when my team came in. I'm on my third year as mayor now, and we came in. Our city had owned this piece of land, which used to be a lot smaller of a piece of land since 1995. And there's been different attempts over the years. Different companies have come and gone. Different ideas have been proposed of what they want to do with

this land, in particular how to create connectivity between 249 and Route 12. When we came in, what we looked at is that to the east of the land, there was all of this really great property, also undeveloped land, but it had multiple different owners and it had multiple different shapes. And so in addition to not being very accessible undeveloped land, the ownership situation made it amazed to be able to get somebody to come in and develop it. So we knew from the start what we had to do over the last two years was start working with other owners to be able to buy the different pieces of land.

and that's how we've now ended up with over 300 acres at this site. It's an incredible site where the highways, the train, and the waterway all come together to create this really great destination. And from the beginning, when we looked at this site back in January of 2024, we said, now keep in mind, that was two years ago. I think the Arlington deal or the original Arlington deal, as announced was maybe only a year old by then. We said, man, this would have actually been a great spot to pitch the bears.

But, you know, timing doesn't all. always work out. So flash forward to December 17th, 2025, when the Bears announced the search has expanded to the entire Chicago land area, we said, man, this was on our minds from the beginning. We owe it to the Bears, the fans, our city, and the Chicago land region to be able to offer what we think is the best site. Now, by the time that we got to the point that they announced, we already had acquired the land needed to make the land actually workable without the bears being on the search.

The big question that we were facing as a city was step two, how to make this land accessible. I've been working with my city council to figure out how to responsibly budget things like building a bridge over the waterway to make the site more accessible. We'd been talking about how to go from the north side to connect the train better to the land. At the end of the day, the bears searching for a site gave us the ability to do step two, which is the connectivity. And step three, which is the development simultaneously. And that's why when people ask, well, what does your city get out of it with the Bears deal? Simply put, I think a question was even asked yesterday, if I remember it correctly, it was, what happens if the Bears don't pick the site?

And what I said, we know that this is a high quality, incredible destination site, where all the different modes of transportation come together, and we have a plan to turn it into something incredible. The Bears picking the site for our city just allows that to happen a little faster, and with two steps happening closer together, if that makes sense. No, it does. Oh, but you were asking about how we reach the bears or how we go about it from there. Portage actually is the third largest city in the region,

and we are a really amazing city when you actually kind of look, you know, under the hood and see what we've got. We have an international port. We've got a steel mill. We are one of the major areas of travel through the Chicago land region. 44 million people drive through our city every year. Not everybody stops. Many people do. We want to increase that. But all that said and done, we're already situated in a great spot. And we have a lot of contact. So when the bear's search started, we started reaching out.

No, it makes sense. Mayor Austin Bonta of Portage, Indiana is joining us to talk about the plan for Hallis Harbor that they announced yesterday. And that's another part of it for me. So it sounds like logistics demanded something be done with this land first. Then it sounds like there's a mixed use development concept. When we say that, we mean, for example, stadium plus residence plus retail. You know, that's typically it's a mixed use property because you have the various uses of the retail and combination of residency or something along those lines. So what was the original vision? Was it going to be to pitch it to developers or something along those lines if it wasn't the bears? Yeah, so we always had a vision for this site once we were able to get the land together and create the connectivity to it to be able to master develop it, working with,

maybe one big developer, maybe working with a team of developers to map out a community that is a little bit higher dense and very much based on its connectivity to the train, the South Shore line, and being the first base of real public transportation in our city. And then also its connectivity to the water, because it's got a navigable waterway, what we call the Burns Waterway. Maybe we'll call it the Bears Waterway one day, but connects right to Lake Michigan. So it brings those two different features together. And one of the big things I know that when people talk about how is Northwest Indiana responding to the news about the bears considering coming to our side of Chicago land, two big things come to mind. One is what is the cost on residents in terms of taxes? And of course, we have a plan to address that that's getting a lot of attention. But then the second aspect is what does this do to traffic, right? You know, we've got all these cities in northwest Indiana. How much traffic is this going to bring in on game days, concert days?

What's particularly neat about what we now call the Palace Harbor. site is 99% of our city residents live south of the highway and definitely south of the waterway that we're talking about building it. So really what we have the opportunity at Hallis Harbor is essentially to build an entire city crafted around this more dense, this more transit-oriented development. And we've always talked about what would be the best anchor. And I mean, I can just say certainly the bears coming to the site would be the absolute best anchor to really build that community and that development around it. And I'm curious, as well, we talk with Portage, Indiana Mayor Austin Bonta, as they make this pitch for Hallis Harbor and a stadium project in their city.

It's tax-free, allegedly. The bears aren't going to be in debt. The taxpayers aren't going to be in debt. Does that mean private equity steps in? Tell us how these gaps are being filled because that's a lot of money someone has to come up with to build a stadium. Absolutely. And that was actually one of the things that was the biggest challenges for me is that. is that we definitely see the benefit of a stadium coming into any city as far as what that can do for economic development.

But we also know that whether it's a city, whether it's a state, when taxpayers are funding a stadium and they're on the hook for that much, it can create trouble down the road. Portage being a city of, again, we're the third largest city in the region, but we're not a million-person city. That's a lot of responsibility to take on or potentially to be in some issue with down the road. So I told my team it was very important that our pitch included some way to be able to minimize or eliminate taxpayer cost. At the time, too, we had no idea on January 18th what the state of Indiana was going to do with the Bears search. We wanted to start as quick as we could. And we ended up finding a partner who's offering an equity deal where a private company would build the stadium. We would be able to give it to the Bears.

rent-free, and then the stadium revenue that's generated from non-football-related events, such as concerts, trade shows, different events happening in the stadium, over a long period of time, would pay back the cost of building the stadium to the private entity. And we understand the private entity, Mayor Bonta is Lou Weisbach, and his group is correlated or is subsidiary or part of J.P. Morgan. Is that correct? Lou has the financial resources to bring that together, and he's been a very good friend to us and a great partner with us as we put this deal together. And we understand that as we bring it to the Bears and as the state of Indiana takes a look at it and what they want to add to it, we certainly understand that we need to be flexible starting from our current offer,

but it was very important for us that we had a viable, responsible deal on the table to be able to adequately finance a stadium of this size. So what's the timeline then? Because some of the concepts that we've seen are the numbers being thrown around. And tell me if you have different numbers, it's in the neighborhood of somewhere around combining infrastructure cost and development cost. It would be somewhere like $7 billion. You know, that's a number that's been discussed. So five famously, $5 billion, that's a recent stadium that was built. So what's the number and then what's the timeline to get that repaid to a private equity entity? So I would direct you to Lou or if you'd like to, you know, kind of speak to him about all the financial details of it. But to put it simply, what we're talking about is $5 billion for the stadium plus infrastructure, and then a $2 billion sinking fund to cover issues that could come up once it's constructed and once the deal is set up. And there are certainly elements of the deal as far as how much revenue is going to be paid over how much time to be able to pay back the cost of the stadium. That would be something that we would negotiate with the bears as we get to that stage.

So like I say, we're very excited about that element of it. and at the same time we're also super excited about the site being what we think is the best site for the bears that we can imagine. Austin Bonta, the mayor of Portage, Indiana, joining us here on Rahimi Harrison Grotie here on 104-3, The Score. Austin, I'm curious, what do you think separates your deal from other deals, specifically where the bears, if they build the stadium, obviously they get all of the money that comes in from the revenue in other places?

So I think that simply put what separates our deal from the other areas have been discussed about, I think that we have to consider certainly the uniqueness of the site, the Hellas Harbor site. It is undeveloped land. There is no need to take out existing roads. There's no need to take out existing buildings to build. So that's one piece of it. The other piece of it is the ability for it to be a true, what do you call it, ecosystem of entertainment designed specifically for the bears, not over something that was

existing, but undeveloped land in one of the most strategic spots in the Chicago land region, certainly the northwest Indiana part of the Chicago land region, where you've got the train, you've got the water, and you've got the highways all coming together right in this particular well-traveled area that so many people actually don't even realize is there. Well, maybe they realize it's there now, given the attention that the site is getting. Yeah, I definitely think you've raised awareness. That's for sure, Mayor Bonta. What has been the reception from the Bears?

What have the talks been like? I can't go into all details as far as communication with the bears. I can tell you that they're definitely aware of the offer, both on the land side and on the financial side. We know that they are doing their study to see if it works for them. Certainly, they want to make sure that it's good enough to be true. They want to make sure that it's something that they can plan based on and I'm hopeful to be able to say more about that communication.

piece as time goes on. What's the timeline here? We understand there's a lot of moving parts here, whether it's the Illinois legislature, whether it's the Indiana legislature, what are you looking at as a timeline to see if this is going to be viable or not? What I've told residents,

and I've been asked by many, like, how soon are we going to know something? I say, you know, it could be weeks from now, it could be tomorrow, it could be later this afternoon. Not specifically about the portage site, but ultimately this is the Bears decision, and ultimately the Bears are going to determine what is the best site for the team, the best site for the fans. I'm hopeful that they're going to

agree that the portage site is the best and that our deal is the best offer on the table. But there are also political and economic things going on that are definitely beyond our control and maybe outside of any one person's control that's going to ultimately influence where the bears go. Yeah, Mayor Bonta, that was one of the things that I was wondering about was representing a city into Indiana, you know, there's always the concern from, say, the Indiana teams, you know, whether it's the Indianapolis Colts who are adjacent, you know, they have a publicly funded stadium in Indianapolis, whether there's been any sort of, I don't know if communication is the right word, but have you heard anything from any of the other teams regarding your plan to

put this together for the Bears, just out of curiosity? We've not been reached out to the Colts, and my understanding of it is there are certainly Colts fans in Portage. There are certainly Colts fans in northwest Indiana, but ultimately Northwest Indiana is Bears country. I have to remind everybody, every time the Bears play the Packers, it's a violation of our city ordinance to wear Packers hats, which always is kind of a big stir, but we got to make sure that people are aware. Ultimately, the Bears coming to what we consider to be, well, the Bears coming to Northwest Indiana is still the Bears coming to Bears Country, and it's still the bears come into Chicago land. We're proud to have that part of our identity here.

Austin, be honest with this. Does this feel like a long shot to you? I mean, you're late to the game, but the game is still a foot, if you will, but does this seem like a long shot to you when you talk to the people in your city? It really doesn't. And to start, it doesn't feel like it was late to the game for us because we started working on this on December 18th. I guess you could say December 17th, because I was on the phone as soon as the statement from the Bears came out. And we had people ready to go. It took us some time to put together a proposal that we believed was realistic and a proposal that we thought was workable. And we did send it out to the Bears sooner than it made the news. It recently made the news this week in a really big way. And we definitely

felt it was important to take the opportunity to get it out to the media and explain the details of our proposal. But at the end of the day, I can tell you that from the calls we've been getting and from the attention it's received, I think this is very real. Definitely more real than Iowa, but I think about as real as the other Northwest Adidas sites. I think that that's fair. Simply by geography alone, but for other reasons, no, that makes a lot of sense. So I do find it interesting, though, that you found out via the Bear's statement that Northwest Indiana was a possibility. I was wondering if they had reached out to any specific entities, so not to you in advance is what you're saying.

Oh, that's a great question. And certainly, to put it simply, one day I'm sure there'll be books written or maybe one great book about the story of the Bears and how they ended up in the stadium that ultimately comes their home that we all know and love. But no, we found out from the announcement from the Bears. I couldn't tell you because I don't know how many people knew ahead of time the announcement was coming. I just knew that when the announcement came out, we got to work. And then is there anything else you want people to know about the pitch that you made and what this project could be? One of the big things that I talk about a lot, and I certainly talked about it in the press conference yesterday, is the importance of realizing that there is already muscle memory for fans who live in Chicago,

fans who live in Illinois when it comes to coming to northwest Indiana, especially in the summer and especially in the fall. And in Portage, we know that because we've got beaches, we see the Illinois plates, we meet people who come into the city because it's a great destination in the summer. The travel time feels farther away when you look on it in a map, but if you're somebody who lives in Portage and you drive to Chicago pretty often like I do, you get used to that travel time. And I know people who live in Chicago, but they commute to work in Portage. And it's a time frame that they get used to with the travel. And then you throw in the real opportunity for public transportation, the utilization of the South Shore line to have a site where you can walk off the train and then walk down to the stadium. I think it's something pretty incredible.

And I think it's something that when more people think about it and I've seen it happen, they realize that this is something very workable for fans. And I think it's something that is very special for the Bears. Lou Weissbach and Austin Bonta with this presentation and the pitch. Mayor Banta, we thank you so much for joining us here on Rahimi Harrison Grady to talk about Hallis Harbor. Thanks so much. Thank you, guys. That's Mayor Austin Bonta, kind enough to join us,

not only on the score, but on our Twitch channel as well. So at least we got some more answers. I feel like that's a very good thing. I felt like I have a much better understanding of how this came about and now what the move is next for them and maybe the rest of Indiana. Yeah. And the reason I bring up the Colts is not necessarily because of the fact that they're simply in Indiana. There's a public money aspect to this as well. In fact, Illinois rep Cam Buckner talked about it with the afternoon show, Spiegel and Holmes. So we're going to examine. that part of it next.