Seminars and company events
Vertiport Chicago hosts corporate events, product launches, team-building programs and private dinners for groups from two people to more than 300, in a working helicopter hangar on the Near West Side of Chicago. The site offers 18,400 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space on a privately owned 10-acre lot at 1339 South Wood Street, with the city skyline in view.
The venue sells itself on transformation. The hangar floor is a bare industrial space with full rigging points, so an agency can build a stage, a branded set or a dinner layout from scratch, and load-in and load-out are straightforward. Branding options are open. The formats the venue lists include corporate gatherings, automotive drives and debuts, fundraisers, concerts and performances, sports tournaments with bleacher seating, food or music festivals, photo and film production and team-building experiences, for which a separate program is available. Full-service event planning on site can be added.
The aviation side is part of the offer. Guests can take helicopter tours over the skyline, the landmarks and the lakefront with accredited pilots, and VIP group tours come with group rates and flight times set to the program. A private dinner in the hangar can be paired with a flight over the city.
Rooms and capacities
The Hangar provides 6,400 square feet of indoor event floor under 39-foot ceilings, with a balcony overlooking the space and separate entrances for guests. The Tarmac adds 5 acres outdoors. It can serve as guest parking, as open-air event space or as the base for a tent that triples the footprint of the event. The venue states groups from two to more than 300. It does not publish capacities by layout, so organizers should confirm numbers for a seated dinner or a theater-style session when they send their request.
Catering
The event page does not describe an in-house kitchen or a catering policy, so food and drink are part of the planning discussion with the events team. For private dinners, the venue offers design and entertainment as optional services.
History and setting
Vertiport Chicago describes itself as North America's largest helicopter landing facility. It operates as an FBO for pilots, with landing, parking, fueling and executive and pilot lounges. It also serves as emergency medical infrastructure for the Midwest, mainly for organ and patient transfers, at no cost, and it is planned as a base for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. The facility opened in 2015 next to the Illinois Medical District. Events on the site are subject to approval of a special events permit by the City of Chicago, as the venue notes on its event page.
Getting there
The site lies southwest of the Loop, a short drive from downtown. Parking can be set up on the tarmac, which makes coach arrivals and guest cars simple to manage. Chicago Midway International Airport is the nearest major airport, and O'Hare International lies further northwest. Union Station, the hub for Amtrak and Metra trains, is about 15 minutes away by car. Guests arriving by helicopter land on site.
