CHICAGO — Bally’s has given Tribune Publishing its walking papers, exercising a relocation option to force the newspaper company to vacate its mammoth River West printing plant to make way for a casino.
The relocation notice, delivered several weeks ago, will end a four-decade run for the Freedom Center, which is slated for demolition to build a $1.74 billion casino complex in its place along the Chicago River.
But Freedom Center won’t have to stop the presses immediately. Tribune Publishing will have up to two years to find a new location for its printing plant before the casino breaks ground, Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim said. And Bally’s will have to chip in to fund that relocation.
