Crain’s Headlines: Lightfoot Administration Rolls Out Pot Plan


The Lightfoot administration on Tuesday made its first moves to regulate the recreational marijuana industry, releasing guidelines on where the new businesses can locate. And here’s the catch: they’re all outside the city’s central business district.

Team Lightfoot expects to bar marijuana dispensaries in the downtown area between Oak Street to the north, Lake Michigan to the east, and Ida B. Wells Drive to the south. The western boundary would be LaSalle Street in River North and the Chicago River in the Loop.

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The guidelines will be formally presented at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

In other local business news:

Cboe Global Markets, the biggest U.S. options exchange, announced Tuesday it will move its headquarters from 400 S. LaSalle St. to the Old Post Office building astride the Eisenhower Expressway.

In addition, Cboe will shift its trading floor across the street to the Chicago Board of Trade Building.

Cboe’s decision is just the latest development in a leasing hot streak at the Old Post Office, which has inked new tenants including Uber Freight, Walgreens and Ferrara Candy.

And Northwestern University is celebrating a record-breaking gift, this one from a San Francisco-based alum who is donating $50 million to support student financial aid programs for highly qualified students from middle- and low-income families.

The gift from Jeffrey and Laurie Ubben is the largest ever provided to the university’s financial aid program.


Crain’s Headlines is a joint production between WTTW and Crain’s Chicago Business. It airs every Monday through Thursday on the WTTW News program “Chicago Tonight.” 


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