The state legislature's GOP leaders, Sen. Christine Radogno and Rep. Jim Durkin, are once again introducing legislation that would allow the state to sell the 16-story, 1.2 million-square-foot structure and move state workers to leased space in other buildings, Durkin said.
The revised plan comes with conceptual renderings of a redeveloped site where the Helmut Jahn-designed building now stands—including one showing a 1,700-foot tower, which would become the city's tallest, on the site.
Rauner's plan faces several big hurdles, starting with the need for legislation just to begin the formal process of seeking a sale of the Thompson Center.
Renewed GOP efforts come more than a year after Rauner first announced plans in late 2015 to try to sell the building to a developer that would likely demolish it and replace it with one or more large structures on the full-block site. But that effort never even made it to a vote in the Democrat-controlled Illinois General Assembly. Read more in Crain's.