The plan, called Bronzeville Lakefront, is being pitched by Capri Investment Group and GRIT Chicago with support from 4th Ward Ald. Lamont Robinson, whose ward includes the roughly 100-acre site and surrounding area. The developers made their case at a Thursday morning news conference.

At the center of the proposal is a 1.8 million-square-foot domed stadium seating about 75,000 people, designed to host Bears games as well as other major sporting events, concerts and national attractions.

Around the stadium, the developers envision mixed-income housing that includes affordable, senior, workforce and student units; 400,000 square feet of new offices; shops and restaurants; a health and wellness center modeled on the East Bank Club; parking; and other commercial space. The plan also calls for expanding and connecting McCormick Place to the project and building a 28-acre park with a land bridge over DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

Developers estimate the project would create 60,000 jobs and generate at least $14 billion in regional economic benefits.

Quentin E. Primo III, founder and executive chairman of Capri Investment Group, said the team is prepared to remove what it sees as a key obstacle to the Bears returning to Chicago: the team's ownership of property in Arlington Heights, where it had originally planned a new stadium.

"If the fact that the Bears ownership of Arlington Heights is the key impediment to the team staying downtown and fairly considering Bronzeville, our global investors that we have signed with, and I, and our team, are prepared to buy the Arlington Heights site and eliminate this conflict," Primo said at the news conference.

In a news release announcing the plan, Primo framed the stadium as an anchor for broader investment. "Our vision is to make the Bears a catalyst for new housing, jobs, businesses and economic opportunity that will benefit Chicago long after the final whistle blows," he said.

Primo argued the site offers a more central and accessible location with better public transit than other options, providing lakefront benefits similar to Soldier Field with less traffic and congestion. He said the project would allow McCormick Place to expand, generate income for the Chicago Park District through the new park, which would also serve as a tailgating site, and connect the surrounding community to the Obama Presidential Center and the Illinois Quantum Park to the south.

The developers said their preliminary designs address earlier objections about whether a stadium could fit on the Reese Hospital site. They said the stadium would require 30 to 40 acres, including a 300-foot security perimeter needed to host a Super Bowl, and could be accommodated without encroaching on active railroad operations in the area. They also said the development would reconnect historically separated parts of the South Side through new east-west streets, pedestrian connections and the DuSable Lake Shore Drive land bridge.

The Bears have said they are focused on possible stadium sites in Arlington Heights and Hammond, Indiana, but that has not stopped city developers from pitching lakefront alternatives. Related Midwest has proposed a Bears stadium at the former U.S. Steel South Works site along Lake Michigan, near the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park at 87th Street and DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

In late October, Crain's Chicago Business reported that Springfield lawmakers could vote in November on legislation to make it easier for the team to build a stadium in Illinois, citing momentum from an Oct. 1 meeting in Chicago between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Gov. JB Pritzker, Illinois legislative leaders and Bears minority owner Pat Ryan.

The Bears did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new proposal.