Dueling Lawsuits Weigh on Large South Side Single-Family Portfolio

Real estate mentor Andrew Holmes claims he became a victim of one of his former students.

Holmes, an investor who has long taught real estate classes and frequently does business with a circle of his old pupils, brought a lawsuit against siblings Chris and Aneta Urban, whose companies face a collective 80 foreclosures on $14 million in mortgage loans from Chicago-based Renovo Financial.

Holmes was joined in the lawsuit by fellow investor Mary Desloover, and they also made complaints against Renovo to try to pause foreclosure proceedings. They claim the Urbans misused $10 million in loans from individuals such as Holmes, Desloover and others while buying and rehabbing a large number of homes across Chicago’s South Side and southern suburbs. So far, the Renovo foreclosures are still moving forward.

Kansas City, Missouri-based NorthPoint Development made a massive splash in the Chicagoland industrial market. With the largest deal in recent memory, NorthPoint paid $270 million for over 2 million square feet of warehousing space within an Elgin business park. The seller was High Street Logistics Properties, based in the western Chicago suburb Oakbrook Terrace, and it paid $230 million for the properties in 2021.

Developer Nick Anderson’s firm Fern Hill and its partners Decennial Group and Rebel Hospitality are courting investors for their Motor Row development site entitled for a multifamily project. After switching up plans last year from a hotel to the current proposal for up to 256 apartments at 2328 South Michigan Avenue, a CBRE listing now shows the Fern Hill-led venture is seeking a buyer for the land to take over the project, or an investor to help the current development group kickstart construction.

And in the luxury Gold Coast retail market, longtime Chicago investor Fred Latsko has struck again on Oak Street. Parisian handbag brand Polène is coming to 116 East Oak Street to open its first Chicago store on a 10-year lease for the entire 7,000-square-foot building.