A swath of Oak Park properties on Madison Street, once owned by the now-failed Park National Bank, was recently sold.
Those include a two-story office building and three unoccupied single-family homes on Lyman. All were formerly owned by Park National Bank, until that institution was seized by the feds, and its branches taken over by U.S. Bank in late 2009.
U.S. Bank didn’t want the handful of Madison Street properties, and they were placed in receivership, according to Greg Hernandez, a spokesman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
An entity called Madison Lyman LLC bought the three homes at 500-508 S. Lyman for a total of $194,000 back in April, according to county property records. The houses were unoccupied, and a plan had called for them to be razed for a parking lot before Park National went under, a source told Wednesday Journal in 2009.
The entity also bought the office building across the street at 44 Madison for $456,000 in April. For years, the property was home to Head Start — a federally funded development program for children and families in the Oak Park Area. But its lease ended recently, and Head Start has moved its programs into partnership arrangements with Hephzibah Children’s Association on North Boulevard and with a day care facility on North Avenue, Wednesday Journal reported last month.
Madison Lyman LLC was incorporated in April, and lists its address as 44 Madison in Oak Park, according to the Illinois secretary of state’s website. Charles Gryll, a Lincolnwood attorney who’s listed as the agent for the corporation, did not return calls seeking comment, nor did the buyer, Lake Forest resident James Park.
As of now, Madison Lyman LLC has not applied for any building permits for the properties, according to village hall.