United Center Senior Exec VP Howard Pizer yesterday said that a new office building that would house a Bulls and Blackhawks team store may "go up in the eastern portion" of the arena's parking lot, according to Sandra Guy of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. Pizer added that a decision whether to build "will happen in the next couple of months." He said that no decisions "have been made on how to recoup the lost parking spaces or what to do with the space left vacant inside the United Center." Pizer added that if the office building plan goes through, fans "could see new amenities inside the arena that would keep them on-site -- perhaps a new restaurant or restaurants, retail space and other as-yet-unknown attractions" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 10/2). In Chicago, Micah Maidenberg reported the structure "would house around 300 employees for the teams" and arena staff. Pizer said that a standalone office building "wouldn't preclude construction of a retail and entertainment complex first floated more than two years ago for the lot ... though it would change the design." He "declined to discuss specifics." Maidenberg noted the retail and entertainment complex "would have included 260,000 square feet of bars, event spaces and restaurants, as well as office spaces." But Pizer said that ownership "has now put the idea on the back burner as it decides whether to simply create a building for a growing number of employees" (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 10/1).
