Strategic blows another deadline in messy $190M condo buyout

Condo owners at Ontario Place may have finally had enough.

After learning Friday that Strategic Properties of North America and its lender, Fairchild, have blown another deadline, a growing contingent of unit owners are wanting to rethink their $190 million deal to sell the entire building in bulk to Yitzy Klor’s investment firm.

Unit owners were told in an email that their condo board’s lawyers have not heard from Strategic and Fairchild to set a new closing date despite a Tuesday deadline to do so, multiple unit owners said.

Since last fall, Klor, who heads Strategic, secured multiple extensions from the condo association board at the 51-story, 467-unit property at 10 East Ontario Place to close what would be Chicago’s priciest ever condo deconversion.

The transaction has been pending for three years now. And Klor is going to need to win yet another extension from condo board members, who have gotten angrier after each delay.

“We gave the lender a deadline, they didn’t meet it. We gave SPNA a deadline and they didn’t meet it,” condo board member Jason Bischoff said in a March meeting. “We asked SPNA for a strong proposal [for an extension] and they didn’t do that.”

Unit owners feel they are being held hostage by the buyer, as they are unable to sell their homes individually on the market with the bulk sale pending years after a supermajority of condo owners who collectively hold at least 85 percent of the building’s value approved the deal.

“The green-eyed monster got everybody,” said unit owner Bill Martinez. “If you had a divorce, death, illness or job transfer, you haven’t been able to sell a unit for three years.”

Representatives for Strategic and Fairchild didn’t return requests for comment. Members of the condo board, including its president, Ellen Gutiontov, didn’t return requests for comment, and neither did board lawyers.

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Lawsuits filed by unit owners that tried to block the deal as well as the recent Swiss banking crisis have been blamed by the buyer for delaying the closing. But the litigation is now resolved. It’s unclear why the deal is still on hold.

The condo board is planning a Tuesday meeting to discuss next steps for the deal. Martinez and other unit owners are now pushing for the condo board to hold a new vote, to allow owners to decide whether they want to back out of the deal.

“Hopefully the board will have enough sense to call a general vote of all owners,” Martinez said.