The number of court cases regarding the stalled mixed use development project at Lake Street and Lathrop Avenue is down from three to two after a Circuit Court judge consolidated two of the cases.
Earlier this month, Judge Kathy Flanagan of the Circuit Court of Cook County consolidated the ongoing foreclosure case between Wintrust Bank and Lake Lathrop Partners with a suit River Forest officials filed against Wintrust Bank and Lake Lathrop Partners seeking demolition of the structures on the property.
The next hearing before Judge Anthony Kyriakopoulos is scheduled for Jan. 22.
A related case that remains pending is between the village and Lake Lathrop Partners regarding the developer’s demand that a new building permit be issued for the project. The village filed a motion to dismiss the suit and a ruling is expected before Feb. 14.
The four-story, mixed-use development was to contain 22 condominium units with 14,000 square feet of retail space. The project had been on the drawing board since before the Village Board approved Lake Lathrop’s proposal in 2016.
In September 2023, officials repealed the building permit for Sedgwick Properties, an authorized agent acting on behalf of Lake Lathrop Partners LLC, and issued a stop work order. They said those steps were taken because Sedgwick failed to meet the requirements and conditions of the village’s 18-month building permit, which was originally issued in February 2022.
The long-delayed project had been on life support since April 2023, when Beverly Bank and Trust, a Wintrust-affiliated bank that was financing the development, filed suit against Sedgwick Properties in Cook County court, looking to claw back $4.2 million from the $20 million line of credit it issued in 2022.
In the lawsuit, the lender has reportedly cited several provisions in its loan agreement with Sedgwick affiliates that were violated, including that the contract required the borrower to stay in compliance with local regulations and to stick to a tighter construction timeline.