Private Helipad Opens On Near West Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A group of private investors has opened a commercial helicopter facility near the Illinois Medical District, offering air service to the edge of downtown for the first time in more than 12 years.
Chicago Planning Commissioner Andrew Mooney said Vertiport Chicago is the kind of facility Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he wanted just after he was elected in 2011.
"I left the office scratching my head, saying 'How in the hell am I going to get a heliport?'" he said.
Enter pilot Mike Conklin, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who flew Marine One for President Bill Clinton.
"Chicago was the only world class city without a dedicated place for non-medical private helicopters to land," he said.
Since then-Mayor Richard M. Daley ordered the midnight demolition of the only runway at Meigs Field in 2003, the city has not had a dedicated commercial helicopter facility.
While medical helicopters have been able to use an area in front of the old Cook County Hospital as a landing pad, or land on the roof of Lurie Children's Hospital in Streeterville, executive air travel to the downtown area has not been an option since Meigs was closed.
"We have the ability to serve corporate travel needs, executive charter flights, tourists sightseeing operations, and most importantly provide dedicated priority emergency response service," Conklin said.
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The $11 million Vertiport, at 1339 S. Wood St. is located about a half mile south of Rush University Medical Center and John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. Medical flights that have been using the helipad in Pasteur Park near the old County Hospital will stop using that facility by the end of next month, and instead use Vertiport free of charge.
Conklin said Vertiport would not have been possible without a medical mission. Those medical helicopters also will get priority over other helicopters using the pad.
The first anchor tenant at Vertiport is DHL, which has been using the helipad to transport documents from O'Hare International Airport to downtown businesses since early this year.
"Our chopper can zip over the morning commute, and deliver these critical financial documents," said DHL senior vice president Karsten Aufgebauer.
Conklin said Vertiport also will accommodate the new generation of tilt-rotor aircraft.
"It takes off like a helicopter, and flies like a fixed-wing. It's twice as fast," Conklin said.
Those aircraft will be able to fly to DuPage Airport in only 12 minutes, and to Wall Street in 2 hours.
