2 Aldermen Pluck $$ from Mercy Hospital Deal

suntimes.com - 5 weeks ago - 194 views

Ubi est mea, you ask? Two Chicago alderman harvest big bucks as City of Chicago buys the near South Side Mercy Hospital. Learn how these deals are done.

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by qstrian 5 weeks 5 days ago

Translates as where's mine? Favorite political slogan of mine in Chicago's land of quid pro quo accomodations, fellow Windy Citizens.

by lanarama 5 weeks 4 days ago

Beautiful.

As part of the deal, Mercy sold a big chunk of its campus -- about 10 acres -- to developers, who cut in two former aldermen. The developers planned to build a $151 million development, with as many as 600 condos, town houses and apartments, anticipating a profit of more than $20 million, city records show.

Those future homeowners were expected to pay $60 million in property taxes over 23 years. And all of those taxes would go to the not-for-profit hospital, paying for projects including a sprinkler system, nursing stations and a parking lot.

But the housing development -- called Eastgate Village and located at 26th and King Drive, just a few blocks north of what was to be the mayor's Olympic Village -- hasn't turned out to be as profitable as everyone involved hoped it would be. Only 266 of the apartments and homes have been built. And prices on the new condos -- which were selling for $289,900 to $389,500 -- recently were slashed by as much as $100,000.

The developers blame the recession.

Don't blame the recession. Blame "reality."