The Hand & The Eye: Chicago's $50M Magic Theater Opens

A $50 million magic venue opens Saturday in Streeterville, and its founder says there’s nothing else like it anywhere in the country.

The Hand & The Eye occupies the 35,000-square-foot McCormick Mansion at 100 E. Ontario St. Tickets start at $225, which includes a $75 dining credit. Guests get three hours inside a network of secret passageways, five performance spaces, two dining rooms, and seven bars. Cocktail attire required.

Glen Tullman, the entrepreneur who spent years and $50 million building the place out, doesn’t want anyone calling it a magic show.

“There are big theaters that you can go to and see magic performed,” Tullman said. “That’s not what this is about. You’re a part of the magic. You’re experiencing it yourself. It’s happening to you in your hands and around you.”

That distinction isn’t just marketing. There’s no main stage here. No rows of seats facing a distant performer. Guests move through the mansion’s rooms and encounter skilled magicians at close range, sometimes in spaces that hold only a few people at once. The whole design is built around proximity. You’re not watching something happen on the other side of a spotlight. As Tullman put it: “It’s happening to you.”

The McCormick Mansion has been redesigned with 1920s-era detail throughout. Each room carries its own wallpaper and distinct design elements. Velvet and gold accents appear throughout the building, and the passageways that connect the spaces aren’t just architectural curiosities — they’re woven into the experience itself. Tullman and his team spent years restoring the property and shaping it around that vision.

According to Chicago Sun-Times coverage from April 2026, Tullman has pointed to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles as the closest thing to a comparable venue. That members-only club sits at the center of serious magic culture in the United States. Getting in requires either a membership or an invitation from one who holds one. Tullman’s view is that The Hand & The Eye is larger in scope and surpasses what Los Angeles offers, and that no venue in the country does what his does at this scale.

The mansion sits on the Magnificent Mile, within blocks of the Wrigley Building and Water Tower Place. The stretch of Michigan Avenue near Ontario St. has had a difficult run since the pandemic, with retail vacancies climbing and foot traffic slow to return. A high-end entertainment destination with a dress code and a full bar program isn’t what the corridor looked like fifteen years ago, but Tullman isn’t filling retail space. He’s built something closer to an experience you book the way you’d book a restaurant, except the evening itself is the product.

Speaking of restaurants: the Illinois Restaurant Association has noted that experiential dining venues, where the meal is secondary to the environment or event surrounding it, have become one of the few bright spots in Chicago’s post-pandemic hospitality market. The Hand & The Eye fits that category, with two dining rooms and food built into the ticket price through that $75 credit.

The McCormick Mansion’s history adds another layer. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which governed aspects of how the restoration could proceed. Working within those constraints on a $50 million buildout over multiple years is no small task, and it shaped what the finished space looks like.

Memberships will be available for guests who want deeper access. Members can reach rooms inside the mansion that aren’t open to general ticket buyers, though Tullman’s team hasn’t released full pricing or tier details yet. The structure echoes how the Magic Castle handles access, creating layers of belonging and exclusivity that keep regulars coming back for more of the building than a single visit reveals.

Chicago hasn’t seen a bet quite like this on the Mag Mile in a long time. Seventeen rooms. 35,000 square feet. A $50 million investment that opened in 2026, asking guests to dress up, slow down, and let the magicians find them.

“You’re experiencing it yourself,” Tullman said.