River Forest officials consider action taken at a July 9 Cook County Circuit Court hearing to be a “meaningful step forward” toward resolving the ongoing foreclosure dispute between Beverly Bank and Lake Lathrop Partners.
At that hearing, Judge Anthony Kryiakopoulos determined that Alpha Construction, an entity owned by previous developer, Marty Paris of Lake Lathrop Partners, failed to comply with the court’s order issued in June to obtain appropriate legal representation.
Repeated issues related to Alpha Construction’s representation have prevented forward momentum in the case and, as a result, Kryiakopoulos issued an Order of Default that gave the company 30 days to respond.
Beverly Bank is a Wintrust-affiliated bank that was financing the development and Lake Lathrop Partners is the developer of the stalled project to construct a mixed-use building on the site.
The now failed four-story 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.
“I am grateful to Judge Kryiakopoulos for his efforts to hold the parties in this case accountable — to ultimately free this important commercial property from litigation so that it can be developed to ultimately serve River Forest,” Village President Cathy Adduci wrote in a statement. Adduci has been attending the proceedings with other village officials and village residents.
The next hearing for the foreclosure case is set for Sept. 15, at which time the court is expected to establish a schedule for discovery, which would be what village officials consider to be “another significant step” toward resolving the legal issues that continue to stall progress on the site.
In September 2023, village officials repealed the building permit for Sedgwick Properties, an authorized agent acting on behalf of Lake Lathrop Partners, and issued a stop work order.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 filed suit against Sedgwick Properties in Cook County Circuit 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.