Lender lawsuits and the listing of Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home brought more attention to Chicago’s South Side and southern suburbs this week.
Chicago-based Renovo Financial originated at least 80 loans to single-family home rehabbers Chris and Aneta Urban that have all fallen into foreclosure. The siblings’ deals have thrust $14 million in mortgage debt into distress, and the borrowers took on millions more in debt from individual lenders now at risk of getting wiped out at foreclosure auctions.
In Dolton, officials are blowing up an investor’s attempt to sell Pope Leo XIV’s boyhood home through an auction. While it’s still listed for sale with a minimum bid of $250,000, the village this week threatened to use eminent domain to take control of the property. It intends to work with the Archdiocese of Chicago on the property’s future use — perhaps it will become a museum of some kind.
Embattled commercial real estate investor Ruben Espinoza went on the attack against his partner Igor Gabal. The two investors jointly purchased the historic Loop office building at 300 West Adams for $4 million in late 2023, an eye-popping discount of 90 percent from its value in 2012. But Espinoza — who faces his own slew of loan defaults and lawsuits across his Chicago-area properties — is now suing Gabal alleging that a $6 million insurance payout meant to fund repairs has been mishandled.
A buyer out of Great Neck, New York emerged for the troubled 65-story tower at 311 South Wacker Drive after a previous deal fell apart. Kohan Retail Investment Group is jumping into the office game as it nears a deal for the 1.3 million-square-foot property. It was previously eyed by Chicago developer John Murphy and Gerald Kostelny, whose $70 million offer brought talk of the building becoming the world’s tallest teardown following a streak of tenant losses. But that deal appears to have blown up.
In the hotel market, local investor Parag Patel extended his streak of purchases with an $18 million deal for an Evanston Hilton Garden Inn, a price that dealt a loss to seller Magna Hospitality.
And 3 Diamond Development was hit with a $21 million foreclosure lawsuit brought by Associated Bank for an affordable senior housing property on the bank of the Fox River in St. Charles.