River Forest Officials Want Development Saga to end

The developer and bank tied to a stalled River Forest condo project site were told to “stop playing games” by a Cook County judge.

Anthony Kyriakopoulos, Circuit Court Judge in Chicago, told Marty Paris’ Sedgwick Properties and Rosemont, Illinois-based Wintrust Bank that they need to get their houses in order so that a foreclosure on a vacant lot can proceed. The judge said that their legal maneuvers, including incomplete filings, were causing substantial delays in the court battle over the stalled condo plan at 7601-7613 Lake Street, according to Crain’s.

In the same hearing, River Forest’s village president Cathy Adduci told Kyriakopoulos that everyone involved was responsible for “dysfunction, unnecessary banter, lies and delays.”

The site was targeted for redevelopment a decade ago, in 2016. In 2018, Paris’ plan to build a five-story, 30-unit condo building was approved. Prices for the units would go as high as $1.4 million, according to the outlet. The initial move-in date was 2019. Village officials revoked the developer’s building permit in 2023, with a small slice completed.

Beverly Bank & Trust, a Wintrust affiliate, approved a $20 million line of credit after another source of financing decided to depart the project in 2022. Beverly canceled the line of credit the next year, and sued Paris for $4.2 million used for the project, according to the publication. Beverly then initiated foreclosure in May 2023.

The court case has now dragged on for three years, and is still ongoing. Kyriakopoulos scheduled the next hearing for July 9, according to the outlet. He also said that there’s nothing he can do about the eyesore of a development while the court case is still pending.

In the decade since the Lake & Lathrop development was greenlit, only one new development has cropped up in River Forest. That development was a 125-unit senior living facility around a mile away.

— Hunter Cooke