Wrigley Rooftop Federal Lawsuit Withdrawn

The federal lawsuit filed by some Wrigleyville rooftop owners has been withdrawn, according to Jared S. Hopkins in the Tribune:

A federal judge last week granted a request by owners of Wrigley rooftop businesses to withdraw their lawsuit against the city of Chicago and its Landmarks Commission, which sought to throw out the panel's decision allowing the Cubs to install its outfield signs.

The businesses, Skybox on Sheffield and Lakeview Baseball Club, did not give any reason for their voluntary dismissal, according to court records. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve granted the request.

The complaint was filed in Cook County several weeks after the commission's July decision before being moved to federal court. The suit originally brought by owners of eight rooftop businesses who feared that signs and large-scale video boards, part of the team's $375 million renovation, would block their birds'-eye views into Wrigley Field. (An additional $200 million in upgrades to the surrounding area was not subject to landmark approval.)

The attorney for those eight businesses, Tom Moore, declined to comment this week about the dismissal.

These are the same businesses that recently lost an attempt in federal court to get a temporary injunction against the Cubs to halt construction of video boards that they said would block views. In fact, if you have been to Wrigley Field this year, you can see that the right-field video board currently under construction would directly block the view of Skybox on Sheffield and partially block views from other rooftops on that side of the ballpark.

This would seem to be the final salvo fired by any of the rooftop owners against the Cubs. Construction will soon be complete on the video boards and the bleachers will reopen later this summer. There isn't going to be any judge who would order the Cubs to tear down something they've received permission to build and have completed.

The next step, most likely, is going to be some kind of financial buyout or settlement with the various rooftop owners. It's possible the Ricketts family will wind up buying some of the buildings and owning most of the rooftop businesses on both Waveland and Sheffield. As I have previously written, this is something Tribune Company should have done decades ago when they first purchased the Cubs. They likely could have bought up all those buildings in the mid-1980s for around $2 million. It will cost many multiples of that for the Ricketts to buy out the current rooftop owners, but eventually that is what I think will happen.