One year after a Woodlawn-based nonprofit management company filed for bankruptcy amid mounting debt and allegations of fraud, 15 of its former South Side properties sold at auction.
The auction brought in $7.7 million for the total of 100,000 square feet, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. It featured three properties near the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church in Bronzeville, where the nonprofit’s founder, Rev. Leon Finney Jr.,
leads the congregation.
Finney started Woodlawn Community Development Corporation almost 50 years ago. It filed for bankruptcy in October 2018, after the IRS put a lien on Woodlawn’s bank accounts for owing millions in back payroll taxes. Accused of engaging in fraud, self-dealing and mismanagement over its use of public housing accommodation funds, Finney stepped down from the corporation a month later.
Finney was one of about 60 people who attended Monday’s auction, according to the report. A trustee hired in March is seeking to recoup money for the nonprofit’s creditors.
Finney sat next to a woman who unsuccessfully tried to purchase the headquarters of his failed broadcast venture. A spokesman for Finney said the woman’s efforts weren’t related to his client, according to the report.
The broadcaster, Urban Broadcast Media, was evicted from the residential building at 4108 S. King Drive in August, and moved to Finney’s neighboring Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church.
The 14 other properties included in the sale all surpassed their minimum bids. The largest winning bid was $1.8 million for a vacant lot near the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line stop. [Sun-Times] — Brianna Kelly