A luxury listing in Kingsbury Estates is making waves with an $8.8 million price tag, even as its seller is in hot water.
A lender, a former employee and contractors are all chasing the seller of the home at 460 West Huron Street, Thomas Merkel, for unpaid bills they say he owes.
Merkel bought the 10,360-square-foot home for just under $6.8 million in 2021, property records show.
In March, Axos Bank filed a still-pending foreclosure case against the homeowner, claiming Merkel defaulted on mortgage payments beginning in November, according to court filings. That means Merkel can still avoid foreclosure if he pays off the remainder of his mortgage through the sale of the property.
In a statement to The Real Deal Tuesday, Merkel said he will pay off the debt owed to Axos Bank when the home sells.
Property records show the original loan exceeded $4 million and was the second of two mortgages taken out on the property. The first, a $2.5 million loan from A&N Mortgage Services, has been paid off.
Furthermore, Merkel and his company have been ordered to pay more than $652,000 in damages to a former employee, Noah Pettit, who said Merkel failed to pay him for over a year, according to a recent ruling by a Cook County Circuit Court judge. Merkel refuted the claims filed against him and his signage company, South Water Signs.
He called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said that Pettit “won’t touch my proceeds upon sale” of the West Huron property.
Pettit worked as vice president of sales for the Elmhurst-based company for 14 years, according to a lawsuit Pettit filed last year.
The trouble began in 2020 when Merkel and his wife, Aferdita, began a “contentious” divorce proceeding and Merkel started diverting funds from the company’s business account into a separate account in an alleged attempt to keep his finances secret from his wife and her lawyer, according to Pettit’s lawsuit.
Aferdita Merkel tried to intervene in Pettit’s lawsuit in March but a judge denied the request. Her divorce proceedings against Thomas Merkel remain ongoing. Pettit’s attorneys did not respond to requests for comment. An attorney for Aferdita Merkel declined to comment.
After Thomas Merkel failed to appear in court, a judge ruled in favor of Pettit in April, ordering Merkel and South Water Signs to pay him $652,241 in interest, legal fees and unpaid commissions earned from January 2022 through April 2023. Merkel tried to vacate the ruling but was unsuccessful.
This debt is now tied to the Kingsbury Estates property, and it is one of multiple liens against the property that could be taken out of whatever Merkel makes when he sells the home.
In 2021, the first of three mechanic’s liens was placed against the property, all stemming from unpaid work done on the home during that summer and fall.
One debt of $69,170 owed to a construction company has since been paid and released. The other two — a $51,500 lien for plumbing work and a lien from a general contractor for more than $204,000 of work — remain unpaid, records show.
The unresolved liens on Merkel’s home and the April judgment in the Pettit lawsuit amount to more than $907,000 that could be taken out of the sale of the seven-bed, 11-bath Kingsbury Estates home when it is sold. On top of that, Merkel will need to pay off the remainder of his mortgage allegedly in default.
The mansion’s asking price comes out to $845 per square foot, and there’s an additional 4,200 square feet of outdoor space situated on a triple lot, according to public listing information.
Emily Sachs Wong of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, named one of Chicago’s top brokers last year by The Real Deal, has the listing. She said she feels confident in the price point of the home given its location and unique amount of outdoor space with a terrace, firepit, pool and rooftop terrace.
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