Wolcott Group Files Lawsuit Against Goltz, Wolkowicki

Former real estate teammates Mitch Goltz and Shai Wolkowicki have been hit with another lawsuit while they work through their own internal court fights to wind down their old company GW Properties.

Andrew Goodman and Ari Golson’s Chicago-based firm Wolcott Partners filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court this month alleging GW Properties failed to pay off a $1 million loan. The note is backed by a Wolcott-funded mortgage taken out on a vacant retail property in west suburban La Grange, owned by the former GW duo.

Goltz and Wolkowicki have also racked up over $700,000 in mechanic’s liens against the property at 14 South La Grange Road for allegedly failing to pay various contractors as promised for their work.

Wolcott issued the debt to GW in July 2024, and when it matured a year later, the investors failed to pay it off. Now, Wolcott is asking a judge to approve a foreclosure of the property because the mortgage is in default.

It’s far from the only debt that GW ventures took on from Wolcott. GW borrowed a $12 million mezzanine loan from Wolcott in early 2024, using seven GW-owned properties in Chicago and its suburbs as collateral, including the La Grange property, public records show.

Most of the properties have since been sold over the last year and released from the Wolcott deal, including the Church Street Plaza in Evanston that fetched over $31 million from buyer Continuum Capital, records show.

Reached by phone, Goltz said he and Wolkowicki are in the process of refinancing the La Grange property.

Wolcott’s lawsuit comes as the GW pair is in the process of winding down their old firm and going separate ways. Wolkowicki is staying in the multifamily business while Goltz continues to focus on retail and mixed-use developments with his new firm, GTZ Properties.

Yet recent legal battles have ensnared the business partners as they make career transitions.

Investors and lenders are currently pursuing Wolkowicki and Chickoo Patel, his business partner in the multifamily sector, for nearly $20 million total in various court cases, including $63,000 in credit card debt Patel allegedly owes to American Express.

As those lawsuits piled up, Wolkowicki hit back, alleging Patel was running a “ponzi-like scheme” that has bilked his ex-partners out of more than $10.8 million through fraud, theft and mismanagement.

Over the years, Wolkowicki and his wife Lauren Lampert, have invested in more than 50 real estate projects with Patel. In addition to that trio’s Chicago holdings, they also jointly owned rental properties throughout Illinois, including in Rockford, and Springfield, where Patel and Wolkowicki are facing a $16 million foreclosure lawsuit from Old National Bank for an apartment complex at 1833 Seven Pines Road.

While those disputes don’t involve Goltz, he’s facing his own legal drama with Wolkowicki in addition to Wolcott’s $1 million suit.

Wolkowicki is suing Goltz, alleging Goltz siphoned funds and pledged company assets to outside groups without consent, specifically diverting over $2 million from the sale of Church Street Plaza in Evanston. The lawsuit is pending in Cook County Circuit Court, as Goltz is trying to dismiss the complaint and force his former partner to work it out in arbitration or mediation, while Wolkowicki wants to keep the case in court.

It hasn’t been all bad news for the pair. The duo last week sold a 128,000-square-foot industrial property at 3800 North Milwaukee Avenue for $16.4 million, moving on from the site a block away from the Portage Park People’s Gas site GW walked away from redeveloping after hitting multiple snags with a $110 million proposal.

The building at 3800 North Milwaukee was also used as collateral for GW’s mezzanine loan from Wolcott, public records show. Before the sale, the Milwaukee Avenue property also had another large mechanic’s lien recorded against the GW ownership last month. It alleged DCS Midwest — the same contractor that’s allegedly gone unpaid in La Grange — is owed $3.4 million for work it performed without yet being compensated. It’s unclear if GW’s subsequent sale of the property will clear up the dispute.

Meanwhile, GTZ Properties secured necessary entitlements to rezone an Aurora property for mixed-use development. Goltz said the Aurora project is one of many properties that GTZ is making progress on redeveloping.

Last year, his new firm also bought a four-building, 327,000-square-foot Oak Brook office complex out of distress for $9 million. GTZ hasn’t yet finalized plans for that property.

Sam Lounsberry contributed reporting.