Construction was halted at the River West construction site of a new Chicago casino when the Illinois Gaming Board discovered an unauthorized subcontractor was being used at the site. The company, providing dumpsters for the Bally’s Casino construction site in River West, has alleged connections to organized crime going back more than two decades, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The company in question that provided the dumpsters – D&P Construction – was owned by brothers John and Peter DiFronzo, noted members of the Chicago mob. Both brothers, though, have died in recent years and it’s unclear whether the company is still connected to the family. This company was also involved in a fiasco with a casino construction proposal in Rosemont that ultimately was nixed and moved to another Chicago suburb.
The Illinois Gaming Board officially issued the work stoppage due to use of an “unapproved vendor” at the site. The general contractor is a partnership of minority-owned and smaller contractors called the Chicago Community Builders Collective.
This is the site’s second work stoppage in the last six months. In December 2024, construction was halted because debris from the demolition of the Chicago Tribune’s printing plant, known as the Freedom Center, the site on which the casino is being built, was spilling into the Chicago River.
As one of the conditions for the casino’s approval, per state law, the casino is required to open by September 2026. The $1.7 billion casino faces an uphill climb on that tight timeline.
Greg Zimmerman is senior contributing editor for FacilitiesNet.com and Building Operating Management magazine.
