Lawsuit: Investors Want To Buy Debt On Palatine Condos, Force Deconversion
Condo deconversions in Chicago have been met with varying degrees of success. But the largest potential condo deconversion in the Chicago market is in the suburbs and is the subject of a lawsuit, according to Crain's Chicago Business.
VM Holdings' Vincent Manglardi filed suit Feb. 21 in Cook County Circuit Court against Trilogy Investments principal Nick Marietti, Trilogy affiliate VR Palatine, Monetta International and IM Equity. Manglardi alleges the defendents acquired the debt on the Woods of Countryside, a 719-unit condo complex in Palatine, with the goal of facilitating a deconversion under the forced sale provisions of the Illinois Condominium Act. That law typically requires a three-fourths vote of a condo building's owners to approve a deconversion.
The Woods at Countryside, originally apartments, converted to condos in 2006, in a $69M deal. The 2008 real estate collapse sent condo values plummeting; 485 of the Woods' units are unsold, according to the suit.
The suit accuses the defendants of colluding to force a deconversion, which means that VM Holdings would lose its $8M stake in the development.
