Shaya Wurzberger Selling 22 Chicago Apartment Buildings

A major landlord on Chicago’s South Side who was recently hit with a string of foreclosures is selling 22 other multifamily properties in his sprawling portfolio.

The properties that Brooklyn-based Shaya Wurzberger is selling are not part of a previously reported 12-building foreclosure complaint against his company, an analysis from The Real Deal found.

Wurzberger’s new listing with Colliers includes 22 properties totaling 311 units, marketing material show. He said he’s interested in testing the market for the properties but open to hanging onto them as well.

“If [a buyer] doesn’t give me the number I’m looking for, I will keep operating it and maybe I will sell it in the future,” he said.

So far the properties have performed well, maintaining between 95 and 98 percent occupancy, he added.

Wurzberger previously told The Real Deal he owns 1,000 apartments across Chicago that he spent about $100 million buying between 2022 and 2025. An analysis by TRD verified he owns upward of 500 units, which he spent $50 million to purchase between 2022 and mid-2025, according to public records, though the analysis was not comprehensive of all of Wurzberger’s properties.

Whether he sells the portfolio of not, Wurzberger said he is not planning on downsizing his Chicago portfolio permanently and is instead looking for opportunities to buy more buildings in the city.

As he tries to offload the 22-property portfolio, Wurzberger is facing legal troubles related to a separate group of his Chicago apartment buildings. He did not respond to requests for comment.

Last year, he was hit with a $12 million foreclosure lawsuit by lender Roc Capital on a portfolio of 14 buildings on Chicago’s South and West sides. He purchased the buildings in February 2024 and defaulted on them by November of that year, court filings allege.

Wurzberger tried to get the foreclosure lawsuit filed by New York-based Roc thrown out of court, but his motion was recently denied by a judge and the case is advancing. He declined to comment on the status of the pending action.

In January, he was hit with a separate foreclosure from the lending arm of Churchill Real Estate for defaulting on a $638,000 mortgage backed by a multifamily property at 4326 West 17th Street. Lender A&S Capital initially issued Wurzberger the loan in 2023. Lenders sold the debt twice, ultimately landing it with Churchill Real Estate. Wurzberger failed to pay off the note when it matured, leaving an unpaid balance and late fees totaling $516,000, the filing alleges.

The foreclosure filing also alleges Wurzberger failed to pay about $6,000 in property taxes on the building in 2024 and, in years prior, fell behind on more than $50,000 in property tax payments long enough for the county to sell the unpaid bills off to delinquent tax buyers.

Doing so allows the county to recoup its lost revenues while the delinquent tax buyer requires the property owner to pay the tax debt back with significant interest.

He said he is confident he will be able to clear up the issue without the litigation moving forward.

“I have a great relationship with the lender, I talk to the lender all the time,” he said.

The building was also subject to city code violations that Wurzberger failed to cure before Churchill filed the foreclosure, the complaint alleges.

As a newer buyer to the market, Wurzberger said it took him some time to establish a property management company but now that he has gotten it fully functional, he’s ready to take on more.

“I think we have a great management company and if it makes sense to buy more, we will,” he said.

As drama unfolds elsewhere in his portfolio, the 22-property portfolio Wurzberger recently listed appears to be faring better. There are no foreclosure proceedings pending against the properties. The buildings range from six to 33 units with a weighted average rent of $1,800 per unit, marketing materials show.

The South Side buildings are in so-called “Mobility Zones,” which are areas of the city determined by the Chicago Housing Authority to have lower than average crime rates and better than average public schools and job opportunities. Within the designated areas, the CHA helps tenants locate such properties and provides financial assistance for moving fees. The program also provides subsidies for landlords in exchange for offering discounted rents to qualifying tenants.

The exact amount of financial assistance available to tenants and landlords in such areas varies. The varying levels of assistance offered by the agency can cause confusion for property owners with smaller portfolios but tends to be easier to absorb across a larger portfolio, Wurzberger said.

“Across the board, when you have a big portfolio, eventually its going to average out. I’m used to it and it’s not the end of the world,” he said.

Wurzberger, however, has run into trouble with the CHA in the past. For about a year between early 2024 and early 2025, Wurzberger was suspended from the CHA’s Housing Choice Voucher program, meaning he was unable to accept new tenants with Section 8 rental vouchers funded by the federal government and administered by the CHA, for at least some of his units.

At the time, Wurzberger said the suspension was due to the firm having a handful of units placed into “abatement,” meaning they failed housing quality standards inspections.

Rentals with leases subsidized by the program are inspected at least every two years, and if a unit fails an inspection, the landlord is given 30 days to bring the unit into compliance, or 24 hours for certain emergency repairs.

Landlords are given multiple chances to avoid suspension if units fail inspections. Wurzberger said he had four units fail an inspection. Suspensions are only triggered after landlords fail to remedy problems for two months, according to CHA documents.

Levav had to maintain a solid record during the suspension. The CHA could have considered removing the firm entirely from the rental assistance program if it failed additional inspections that led to voucher contract terminations during the suspension.

His properties were reinstated in February 2025.