“Windy City Rehab” still owes $117K in unpaid loans: Lawsuit

Former partners continue to battle barrage of legal complaints amid "business divorce"

‘Windy City Rehab’ partners are in court again after fallout from ‘business divorce’ continues
Windy City Rehab’s Alison Victoria Gramenos and Donovan Eckhardt (Getty)

“Windy City Rehab” partners have landed themselves in court. Again.

Alison Victoria Gramenos, the host of the HGTV show, and contractor Donovan Eckhardt — once close friends — are accused of falling short on $170,000 in payments to two suburban lenders, according to the Chicago Tribune.

In a suit filed in Cook County court last week, Ferro Investment Fund LP and Mark Triffler Declaration of Trust claimed 200 E. Delaware LLC, the legal entity that owned a Gold Coast condo flip they worked on in Season 2, failed to make payments on a $185,000 loan.

Payments due in April 2020 were extended until Oct. 9 and another extension to Dec. 31 was agreed to but never finalized, according to the report. Though some payments were made, the outstanding balance due the Joliet-based Ferro fund comes to $56,267, while the Triffler trust, based in Lemont, is still owed $117,231 in principal and interest, the suit claims. The suit is also seeking attorneys’ fees. A Nov. 2 court date is set.

Attorneys for the trusts did not respond to requests for comment, but Gramenos’s and Eckhardt’s attorneys did, according to the report.

The lawsuit, according to Gramenos’s attorney David Lynch, is “another in a series of claims arising out of the fallout of the ongoing business divorce” between the two former partners, arising “out of a project (Eckhardt) brought to the table,” the paper reported.

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The project was supposed to earn them “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Lynch said. “Triffler and Ferro are now disappointed that they did not get all their money back. (Gramenos) shares in their disappointment because she also lost more than $150,000 on the project as well.”

James Skyles, Eckhardt’s attorney, told the Tribune he was surprised by the suit. “Mr. Eckhardt has settled all business with Ferro Investment Fund and the Mark Triffler Trust. We are puzzled as to why he has been included in this lawsuit.”

This month’s lawsuit is the latest in a series beginning in 2019 when the show was still filming. Many have been settled but some are still outstanding. A Lincoln Square couple, for example, is still unhappy with the renovation of their home and a family of investors claim they, too, were not fully paid, according to the report.

Cook County Judge Allen Walker is mediating talks between the investors: “The court would be — I’m reluctant to use the word ‘happy’ — but the court would be willing to assist you guys with having settlement discussions,” Walker told attorneys, the Tribune reported.

[Tribune] — Jennifer Waters