A real estate developer whose companies made millions doing business with City Hall has been caught up in the federal investigation of Alderman Carrie Austin.
A grand jury looking into the 34th Ward alderman’s purchase of a home in her South Side neighborhood also is seeking records from businessman Boris Nitchoff and his family, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The relationship between Nitchoff and Austin is not yet clear, and the businessman has not donated to the alderman’s campaigns.
Nitchoff, however, has developed residential projects in the alderman’s ward. His companies have secured more than $100 million in city contracts, including for repairing roofs and porches of low-income residents and soundproofing homes near Midway and O’Hare airports, the Sun-Times reports.
Nitchoff also is leading the development of 250 single-family homes on the Far South Side. The project, which is in Austin’s ward, has received $12 million in city subsidies, and investigators are seeking records relating to the development, according to the Sun-Times.
Austin in 2016 sponsored a resolution seeking to rename a stretch of South Glenroy Avenue “South Nitchoff Avenue,” though the change was never made. The same year, Austin sponsored a proclamation honoring a late teenage relative of Nitchoff, according to the Sun-Times.
Federal investigators have been looking into a number of people in and around City Hall, including powerful Ald. Ed Burke (14th), who is accused of shaking down developers to get business for his private law practice. [Chicago Sun-Times] — Joe Ward