Gene Staples Faces Foreclosure of Chicago Office Loan

Amusement park landlord Gene Staples is heading down the Chicago office market roller coaster.

Chicago-based Staples — whose firm IB Parks and Entertainment owns a handful of theme parks throughout the U.S. — was hit last month with a lawsuit by Salt Lake City-based real estate giant Bridge Investment Group, public records show.

Bridge, which was purchased last year by private equity giant Apollo for $1.5 billion, is the lender on a troubled $28 million loan for the 302,000-square-foot office building known as International Tower at 8550 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, near O’Hare International Airport.

Staples bought the property from Bridge using seller financing in 2023 after its previous landlord, Chicago-based Golub & Co., initially defaulted on a loan from Bridge for the property. That forced the property into Bridge’s hands, and the lender sought to recover as much of its investment as it could by offloading it to Staples.

Now, Bridge alleges a company led by Staples has also defaulted on the debt by missing loan payments beginning in February, as well as failing to pay $2.7 million in property taxes owed for the building, the lawsuit filed May 20 said.

The lender claims it is owed nearly $29 million as of May 15.

Neither Staples nor Bridge Investment Group returned requests for comment.

The alleged loan default is far from a one-off in the suburban Chicago office market, which has been rocked by multiple negative factors since the pandemic, most notably the vanishing demand for commercial workspace due to the rise of remote and hybrid white collar schedules.

The suburban Chicago office vacancy rate hit a new all-time high of 33.4 percent in the first quarter this year, extending a 21-quarter streak of record highs, despite demolitions helping to shrink total office supply to its lowest level since before the Great Recession.

Additionally, jumps in interest rates compared to pre-pandemic debt costs, along with a significant caseload of foreclosures and other court disputes over suburban office buildings have hamstrung landlords. That’s leaving many properties unable to compete for tenants due to a lack of clarity on how leasing commissions and interior improvements required by occupants will be funded.

International Tower isn’t Bridge’s only spat with office distress in the Chicagoland market during the post-pandemic commercial real estate slump. New York-based Namdar, a specialist in buying at the bottom of property markets, scooped up the loan note for the 47-story skyscraper at One North LaSalle Street in Downtown Chicago for a little less than $20 million back in 2024. That equates to a 73 percent discount from the face value of a loan balance Bridge was owed by a previous landlord of the property.

In addition to the missed International Tower mortgage payments, the suit alleges Staples missed property tax payments stemming from more than $1.7 million owed for the 2024 tax year and over $939,000 owed for 2025. The borrower also failed to provide required quarterly and annual financial statements, the suit claims.

The original transaction between Bridge and Staples involved the borrower acquiring the property through a credit on the purchase price, utilizing the $28 million loan proceeds for the acquisition and to fund initial reserve deposits. Seller financing became a mechanism for office sales as traditional lenders retreated from the sector: Boston-based landlord Beacon Capital Partners obtained $185 million in seller financing from Germany’s Allianz Life Insurance to buy the 333 West Wacker Drive office property in downtown Chicago in 2024, at a huge discount compared to its prior sale.

Bridge is also pursuing a personal deficiency judgment against Staples. The borrower signed a recourse guarantee on the debt when he acquired the property. If the property sells at a foreclosure auction for less than the $28.9 million owed, the lender can target Staples’ personal assets to cover the difference.

The lawsuit names several other defendants, indicating subordinate claims or mechanic’s liens on the property. These entities include Knudsen Construction, Western Waterproofing Company, Huntsman Architectural Group, Chicago Property Tax Appeal and Recovery, TFO Reva Golub IT and Paul Davis Emergency Services. The lender seeks to terminate these subordinate interests in the property.

The next court hearing in the International Towers foreclosure case is scheduled for July 16.