Chicago & Midwest + Downtown + Hospitality | April 30, 2021

United Center Reopens as Chicago Further Eases COVID Restrictions

The Lightfoot administration has launched Open Chicago, its latest initiative to safely and fully reopen the city following the COVID-19 pandemic. Open Chicago’s initial programming will feature activated, re-imagined, and pop-up spaces for Chicago residents.

Additionally, Chicago will be loosening Phase Four regulations to allow for higher capacity across industries, effective immediately. For restaurants and bars, indoor capacity can increase to the lesser of 50% or 100 people, while large indoor venues, including the United Center, can now operate at 25% capacity.

“We have made significant progress over the past few weeks in daily case counts, test positivity, and other important metrics, allowing us to further reopen Chicago,” said Allison Arwady, Chicago’s public health commissioner.

She added, though, “I have to warn everyone that we are not out of this pandemic yet, and we need to continue to be safe and smart. We need all Chicagoans to get the vaccine.”

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).