A new CTA Green Line station in the Domain is slated to open in 2024

More than five years after it was announced, a new CTA Green Line station near the United Center is under construction.

The Damen Avenue station is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation. It will fill a 1.5-mile gap between existing stations on the west branch of the Green Line and is designed to improve public transportation for nearby residents, businesses in the Kinsey Industrial Corridor and visitors trying to get to the United Center for Blackhawks games, Bulls games and concerts .

Construction of the station and related work on Lake Street under the tracks is expected to cost about $80 million and will be funded by the Kinsey Industrial Corridor Tax Increment Financing District, according to the city.

The “L” station existed at Damen and Lake for decades until it was closed in 1948. According to Tribune archives, Damen was one of 10 stations on the Lake Street line closed at the time to speed up service.

Supporters have long pushed for the station’s revival in the Domain, including the nearby Chicago Industrial Council’s business incubator. Chief executive Steve DeBretto said the return of the Damen station was a matter of fairness.

“It’s great to have multiple transportation options for people who live here, work here or just want to come here to shop,” he said.

The Kinsey Industrial Corridor, the planned manufacturing district where the organization is located, includes firms with labor coming from surrounding areas and companies such as breweries that attract visitors to the area. Transportation options to get to the site and better connect the area to downtown are key for those businesses, he said.

The new station, designed by Perkins&Will, It was originally expected to open in 2020. The completion date was then pushed back a year because city officials said they needed to wait until the station project was finished before awarding a construction contract. CDOT spokeswoman Erica Schroeder said it was delayed again because of preliminary work needed to move utility lines and strengthen column foundations, as well as supply chain issues and delays in receiving materials.

Preliminary work has been underway since 2019, when the city began a project to reconstruct the stretch of Lake Street from Ashland to Domain and relocate the structural columns so the new station could be built.

In previous official statements, the initial price ranged from $50 million to $60 million. Schroeder said the $80 million figure includes nearby work, and the contract to build the station was $67.3 million.

Over the past decade, the CTA has built other new stations designed to close gaps between existing ones. Morgan, serving the Green and Pink Lines east of the new Damen station, opened in 2012, and Cermak-McCormick Place on the Green Line’s southern branch opened in 2015.

sfreishtat@chicagotribune.com