A new buyer is taking over one of Chicago’s most neglected subsidized housing complexes from a pair of investors who named their company after a Ferris Bueller joke.
California-based investors, Alan Smolinisky and Brian Chien-Chih Chen, sold their 180-unit complex of three buildings at 221 East 121st Place in West Pullman for just under $30 million to Transcend Development Group, according to a press release from Alderman Anthony Beale.
The price comes out to $161,000 per unit, a big mark-up from its last sale price of $16 million or $89,000 per unit in 2016 Transcend was separately awarded $24 million in loans for renovations from the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, bringing its total investment into the property to $53 million.
A prior financing application shows that Transcend attempted to buy the property in 2023 for $27 million, though the deal never went through.
Smolinisky and Chien-Chih Chen, who listed the West Pullman property’s owner as “the Sausage King of Chicago,” operate a portfolio of HUD-subsidized buildings held through companies named after 1980s movies. In the 1986 movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Bueller poses as the fictional character Abe Froman, the so-called Sausage King of Chicago, to land a restaurant reservation.
Smolinisky and Chien-Chih Chen also bought a portfolio of South Side apartments in 2018 via an LLC named after Abe Froman but sold them in 2022.
Public records show entities linked to their businesses collected more than $37 million in federal rent subsidies last year across 24 properties in 13 states. Indian Trails alone brought in over $2 million in HUD payments.
For years, they have come under fire from tenants who have dealt with unsafe conditions and broken promises of repairs.
Court records show the property built in 1971 has faced repeated violations in recent years, including failing heat and hot water, electrical issues, nonfunctioning fire safety equipment and plumbing failures. Tenants describe flooded basements, sewage leaks, rodent infestations and maintenance requests allegedly ignored for months.
All major systems and units will receive upgrades under the new ownership, according to the release.