Sam Lounsberry

Illinois

Chicago Bureau Chief at The Real Deal

News enthusiast. NBA-obsessed. @ColoradoStateU J-school. Journalist @trdny. Past stops: @nwherald, @dailycamera, @timescall, @reporterherald. Read your local 📰

Articles

Fannie tags Michael Lerner with foreclosure as family feud simmers

1 week ago | therealdeal.com | Sam Lounsberry

Chicago landlord Michael N. Lerner has a new opponent in court after settling multiple contentious lawsuits with his parents. Fannie Mae is now coming after Lerner, who is called Nathan by his parents. His father is Michael J.
Renovo’s Big String of South Side Foreclosures

1 week ago | therealdeal.com | Sam Lounsberry

Lender lawsuits and the listing of Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home brought more attention to Chicago’s South Side and southern suburbs this week. Chicago-based Renovo Financial originated at least 80 loans to single-family home rehabbers Chris and Aneta Urban that have all fallen into foreclosure. The siblings’ deals have thrust $14 million in mortgage debt into distress, and the borrowers took on millions more in debt from individual lenders now at risk of getting wiped out at foreclosure auctions.
Lender hits 3 Diamond with $21M foreclosure for senior housing

2 weeks ago | therealdeal.com | Sam Lounsberry

Senior housing landlord 3 Diamond Development is on the verge of losing a suburban Chicago affordable housing complex to its lender. The Lincolnwood-based developer and landlord — which claims to operate a sizable portfolio of Illinois and Iowa multifamily properties mostly reserved for residents 62 and older — is facing a $21.1 million foreclosure lawsuit from Green Bay, Wisconsin-based lender Associated Bank.
Inside a $14M fix-and-flip meltdown fueled by lender Renovo Financial

2 weeks ago | therealdeal.com | Kelli Duncan |Sam Lounsberry |Adam Farence

Andrew Holmes congratulated South Side single-family investor Chris Urban on completing his 75th real estate deal in 2022, calling it a “huge accomplishment” and posting a video tour of the home, and Chris joked about losing count of how many properties he had rehabilitated. About two years later, Holmes was warning fellow Chicago investors about Chris, who he accused of running a Ponzi-like scheme that required taking out loans from individuals to pay off other troubled single-family home debts.
Kayne Anderson, JDL eyeing south side of Lincoln Yards as JP Morgan exits

3 weeks ago | therealdeal.com | Sam Lounsberry

Jim Letchinger is holding open the door for Jamie Dimon to exit the troubled Lincoln Yards megadevelopment on Chicago’s North Side. Letchinger’s Chicago-based firm, with financial backing from investment firm Kayne Anderson, is in negotiations to buy the entire 53-acre site of the proposed $6 billion plan on either side of the Chicago River between Lincoln Park and Bucktown, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
CA Ventures surrenders more property near potential Bears stadium

3 weeks ago | therealdeal.com | Sam Lounsberry

After failing to find construction financing, embattled CA Ventures and its investors walked away from a development site near the Chicago Bears’ potential new stadium in the northwest suburbs. First Bank Chicago seized approximately 3.5 acres of vacant land from an affiliate of Chicago-based CA Ventures through a deed in lieu of foreclosure last month, according to Cook County property records.
Chicago Developers Tee Up Big Plans for Turbulent Sites

3 weeks ago | therealdeal.com | Sam Lounsberry

Chicago developers are teeing up big plans for sites that have been through bumpy rides. JC Griffin’s jump from brokerage into development is set to take a big leap forward as his firm went under contract to pay about $29 million for a key site in Bronzeville where he’s planning a $900 million, 50-story housing tower that will also have an AI learning lab component.
T5 Data Centers Ups Suburban Chicago Land Buys to $60 Million

1 month ago | therealdeal.com | Sam Lounsberry

Pete Marin’s data center firm is loading up on suburban Chicago’s North Shore. Atlanta-based T5 Data Centers, whose CEO is Marin, bought 32 more acres of vacant land in Grayslake, bringing the amount it has spent in the last year on assembling real estate in the area to nearly $60 million, according to public records. T5 now controls 255 acres as it prepares to build a massive campus of data centers on property once slated for an industrial complex. More land purchases are likely to come.
Bruce Stern’s Red River faces Lombard office foreclosure

1 month ago | therealdeal.com | Sam Lounsberry

Bruce Stern and his lender for a suburban Chicago office campus are the latest victims of the commercial real estate fallout as another foreclosure lawsuit takes aim at a landlord. Stern’s New Jersey-based firm Red River Asset Management owns one of two adjacent office buildings in western suburban Lombard, and the landlords of both have been plunged into distress in recent years, property records show.
JC Griffin wins deal for Bronzeville site with big residential tower plan

1 month ago | therealdeal.com | Sam Lounsberry

See a mistake? JC Griffin’s foray into Chicago development is nearing a huge deal on the lakefront that could yield a new residential skyscraper on the Near South Side. Griffin, a former Transwestern capital markets broker, struck out on his own last year to dedicate more time to his firm Griffin Venture Group with ambitions to buy the King Sykes site adjacent to the planned $4 billion-plus Bronzeville Lakefront megadevelopment being led by Scott Goodman’s Farpoint.