Stuck in Sauganash

A Wisconsin bank has foreclosed on a 4.4-acre swath of land in the city's tony Sauganash neighborhood where indicted developer Tony Rezko and former partner Dan Mahru once planned to build 35 million-dollar homes.

They ended up never building even one, as their company, Rezmar Corp., fell apart amid federal investigations into Rezko's fund-raising for Gov. Blagojevich.

Rezmar long ago stopped paying a construction loan from the Wisconsin bank, stiffing the bank for $13 million.

"Once I left, it all kind of fell apart,'' Mahru said of the project and, more generally, of his former business with Rezko.

Rezko and Mahru bought the property in the 4300 block of West Peterson -- the onetime corporate headquarters for Walgreens -- four years ago. They hired Daley & George -- the law firm of Mayor Daley's brother Michael Daley -- to get the land rezoned to allow 100 town homes. But neighbors squawked. So the project was scaled back to 35 single-family homes.

The office building got torn down. But construction on the homes came to a halt, leaving one of Chicago's wealthiest neighborhoods with a weed-strewn vacant lot surrounded by chain-link fence. No word on the bank's plans for the land.

Tim Novak

That vacant lot in Sauganash also left a gaping wound between Mahru and his brother William, a Hollywood TV writer who now goes by the name Conan Berkeley.

Berkeley, his partner Zane Busby and their pension plan invested $200,000 four years ago in the luxury-home development that his brother and Rezko planned for the Sauganash site.

Now, in a federal lawsuit, Berkeley says his brother broke a promise to repay the $200,000 investment with 20 percent interest when the construction project got refinanced.

Berkeley and Busby claim to have come up with the original idea for "Real People,'' an early-1980s TV hit that featured real people doing goofy things.

Tim Novak

 

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