The building at the corner of Madison Street and Beloit Avenue owned by troubled Forest Park developer Art Sundry was sold Friday to a Schaumburg lawyer who specializes in distressed real estate. The building had been on and off the market since 2011.
Notices were sent to residents of the 26-residential units and five commercial storefronts in the building, including Madison Street Shoes and the Laundry Basket Laundromat.
The buyer was a real estate trust called Forest Park Residential, LLC, registered with the Illinois Secretary of State to attorney Brian Meltzer of Schaumburg.
Tenants got notices informing them of the new ownership. The property will be managed by Meltzer Property Management of Chicago, according to letters.
Sundry owns caffe de Luca on Madison Street, as well as another branch of the restaurant in Chicago. His company, Big Fin Properties of Chicago, snapped up several Madison Street properties before the commercial real estate crash in 2008 and has since lost some in foreclosure.
The largest property, 7300 Madison St., formerly housed Circle Theater and 22 apartments. Sundry lost that property to foreclosure. It was purchased in March by Peter Skiouris, who owns the buildings housing Giordano’s Pizza and Petersen’s Ice Cream on Chicago Avenue in Oak Park.
The 7500 Madison St. property was listed on the MLS for $2,495,000 in 2012 but the sale price was not available yet from the Cook County Recorder of Deeds.
Contacted by phone, Sundry declined to give sale figures.
Sundry was sued and removed from the board of directors of Naperville’s Wheatland Bank in 2010, after being accused of approving risky developer loans to customers who were also doing business with a company he had formed in 2007, Mezzanine Finance, LLC. According to the suit, Sundry never revealed his relationship to Mezzanine to other bank officials. The suit is ongoing.
Wheatland’s assets were seized by the FDIC later in 2010 and the bank was closed. The FDIC insurance fund lost $207 million in Wheatland’s failure, Crain’s Chicago Business reported in September.
