McDonald's Cycle Center History: Chicago's Millennium Park Bike Station

For eighteen years the northeast corner of Millennium Park held a bike garage with a glass atrium, showers and a repair shop. The City managed the project, a federal grant paid for it, a burger chain named it, and it closed for good in the autumn of 2022.³ This is the record, from the first planning documents to the police bicycle patrol that occupies the building today. The Station hub holds the rest of the archive.

Why Chicago built it

The station grew out of the city’s “Bike 2010 Plan” talks, an initiative of Mayor Richard M. Daley to promote Chicago as the most bicycle-friendly city in the United States.¹ The site had been Illinois Central rail yards and parking lots until 1997.¹

In 2003, a year before the station opened in 2004, the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation called the project a “state-of-the-art bicycle parking facility in downtown Chicago.”⁵ The federation had been hired that year to research existing conditions and to help prepare the Request for Proposal for the facility’s operator.⁵ Its 2003 page also recorded that since 1999 it had planned and designed more than 70 miles of new bike lanes for the City.⁵

The money came from Washington. A Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant paid for the station, awarded to encourage bike commuting.³ The Chicago Department of Transportation managed the project, and the City’s fact sheet dates the work: design began in August 2003, construction finished in June 2004, and the dedication followed in July 2004.⁶

Size grew along the way. Planners first allowed 10,000 square feet. The finished building covered 16,448 square feet on a larger plaza.¹ NPR put the cost at $3.1 million in July 2004.⁴

The opening, July 2004

The official opening fell on July 19, 2004, the Monday after the gala that opened Millennium Park.¹ Daley called the station the “first of its kind in the Midwest and one of the biggest in the nation.”⁷

NPR’s report that month described a “club-like atmosphere” where commuters could shower and change before work.⁴ That was the pitch: ride in, park safely, clean up, walk to the office.

What it offered: the 2006 service list

In 2006 the station ran eight services.² All are gone now.

• Parking. In 2006 the station offered 300 secure bicycle parking spaces.²
• Lockers and showers. In 2006 it provided lockers and showers so commuters could refresh before work.²
• Rentals. In 2006 bikes rented by the hour, the day or the week.²
• Repair. In 2006 professional mechanics worked full time in summer, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and part time in winter.²
• Tours. In 2006 guided bicycle tours ran daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.²
• Bicycle camp. In 2006 a camp for ages 9 to 14 ran June through August, built around a two-hour lakefront ride.²
• Car sharing. In 2006 I-GO, a nonprofit car-sharing program, rented cars from Millennium Park.²
• Consulting. In 2006 the operators offered to help any city or company open its own cycle center.²

Rental prices, memberships and tour fees are in their own pages: rentals, memberships and tours.

McDonald’s takes the name, June 2006

The building opened as the Millennium Park Bike Station. In June 2006 McDonald’s announced a $5 million grant to underwrite its operations for 50 years.¹ Fox 32 later described the money as an endowment to the park, enough to cover the station’s operating and maintenance costs for that span.⁷ McDonald’s agreed not to use the Golden Arches or its other traditional signage.¹

Bike and Roll Chicago, a tour company, originally ran the station.³

Hub312 and the closing, 2019 to 2022

In November 2019 the City opened a request for proposals for the next operator.⁸ On May 26, 2021, the City Council approved a three-year contract with Shift Transit, a Chicago mobility company, with a two-year option.⁸ The station reopened that August as Hub312 Cycling Center.⁸ Shift took over in late May 2021.³

It did not last. The station closed at 5 p.m. on September 30, 2022.⁷ The city’s cultural affairs department said the tenant and the City had agreed to end the contract, finding the station “not sustainable as a business enterprise due to decreased demand for these amenities in this specific location.”³ Streetsblog Chicago reported that business had slowed during the pandemic.³

The building today

In March 2023 the department confirmed that the Chicago Police Department Bicycle Patrol, which had held space on the lower level, would now occupy the building.³ It no longer serves commuters.³

For a bike today, the options sit outside it. Bike parking is available on the perimeter of Grant and Millennium Parks, and a Divvy station sits at the Chicago Cultural Center on the Michigan Avenue side.⁹ See bike parking downtown and the Divvy guide for how to use both.