Glenview (Illinois) hotel loan set to sell at big discount By Alby Gallun 08-19-2009 Crain's

Glenview (Illinois) hotel loan set to sell at big discount
By Alby Gallun
Crain's Chicago Business
August 19, 2009

(Crain’s) — A Georgia hotel investor has agreed to buy a loan on a Wyndham hotel in Glenview at a 60% discount as the property’s lender moves forward with a foreclosure suit.

Douglas Artusio, whose Chicago-area investments include a stalled River North hotel development, plans to buy the note on the Wyndham Glenview Suites, a transaction that ultimately would allow him to take control of the 253-room hotel, which was slapped with a foreclosure suit in February.

While the total amount due on the loan was $24.6 million at the time of the suit, the lender, an affiliate of Capmark Financial Group Inc., has agreed to sell it for $9 million to $10 million, according to people familiar with the transaction.

In a brief interview earlier this month, Mr. Artusio declined to confirm the price, but said the transaction was set to close within weeks.

“I’m as deep in the due diligence as you can imagine,” said Mr. Artusio, chairman and CEO of Alpharetta, Ga.-based Dellisart Lodging Hospitality Management LLC. He did not return a follow-up call Tuesday. A Capmark spokeswoman declines to comment.

Dellisart developed and owns a 120-room Staybridge Suites hotel in Glenview and a 118-room Staybridge Suites in Lincolnshire. Yet the firm has had a harder time developing a Staybridge Suites in River North.

The 216-room project at 127 W. Huron St. has been stalled since last summer, when construction workers walked off the job. Last October, CapitalSource Finance LLC filed a $20-million foreclosure suit on the development, a joint venture between Dellisart and Chicago developer Duke Miglin.

In the foreclosure suit involving the Glenview Wyndham, Capmark alleges that an entity led by Chicago attorney Langdon Neal, which owns the hotel at 1400 Milwaukee Ave., failed to pay back a loan that came due Feb. 9.

Related story: Lawyer’s hotel foray falls into foreclosure

A judgment of foreclosure was entered in the case in mid-July, according to a Cook County Circuit Court docket, paving the way for the lender to take control of the hotel.

A sale of the loan at $9 million to $10 million would represent a huge drop in value for the Wyndham, which Mr. Neal’s firm bought for $26 million in 2007. But people familiar with the property say a new owner would need to spend millions fixing it up, one reason for the ultra-low price.