Cubs fans on Sheffield Avenue outside the Lakeview Baseball Club on Thursday . (Phil Velasquez)
By Ameet Sachdev | The owner of a rooftop overlooking Wrigley Field faces a foreclosure lawsuit
from a suburban bank after defaulting on $3.15 million in mortgages on
the property.
Lakeview Baseball Club, 3633 N. Sheffield Ave., remains open while it
deals with the foreclosure action. The building is known for featuring a
sign in Latin that says “Eamus Catuli,” which translated means “Let’s
go little bears.” But the owners of the club were stripped of its
control when a Cook County Circuit judge appointed a receiver earlier
this month to take over operations.
First Personal Bank of Orland Park filed the suit in February seeking more than $2.7 million in principal and interest payments. The bank loaned the owners of Lakeview Baseball Club $2.8 million in 2006, and made a second loan of $350,000 a year later.
In January, the bank sent a letter of default to the borrowers after they failed to make their December and January payments. One of the defendants in the foreclosure suit is Anthony Racky of Winfield, who is a managing director of Lakeview. According to the complaint, he guaranteed the loans. A message left for Racky Thursday at the club was not immediately returned.
The bank moved last month to appoint a receiver. The bank said in court papers that it was concerned that the borrowers were diverting money from the club and using such funds for purposes unrelated to its operations. A lawyer for the bank has not returned phone calls seeking comment.
The receiver is Robert Cataldo, vice chairman and chief operating officer of Hostmark Hospitality Group in Schaumburg. He has not returned a phone call for comment.
Crain’s first reported the foreclosure suit.
Lakeview and the 12 other rooftop businesses adjacent to the ballpark give 17 percent of their revenues to the Cubs, as part of a 2004 agreement that settled a suit brought by the team alleging copyright infringement.
Maybe Sam Zell can do the same great job with this place that he did with Tribune.
How could one of the moneymakers go into foreclosure? Clearly, that money was being used for vacations and other activities unrelated to the operation of this rooftop.
You gotta love Chicago with all of it’s crooked politicians and skanky businessmen.
I guess this is karma coming back at those guys. As a Cubs fan I find it offensive to have that sign.
I alway thought that Eamus Catuli meant 100 more years!
FrequentFlyer: Do you know that in the sign “Eamus Catuli” which means “Let’s go little bears”… Its suggesting that little bear translates to a mean “cub”…. Not sure how thats offensive but ok.
They need John Cleese to give them a Latin lesson. Since “go” is in the imperative voice, the word should be “Ite”, as in “Romani Ite Domum”. Now write it on the wall 100 times.
New sign on the building: persolvo vestri caveo…
Pay your mortgage in Latin
I think part of it is they weren’t making any money. Half-price Rooftop deals have been popping up all over the web for the last couple of seasons. I’ve gone to many games and noticed no one was sitting up there. Let’s face it, ticket sales are not what they used to be, there are more and more tickets available for face for below value if you wait a while. And if sales go down the first to be effected are the rooftops cause your not even in in the park.
1 down, another 12 more awaiting foreclosure.
Yep – I think FrequentFlyer was referring to the “AC” sign as offensive to Cubs fans.
Eventually, everyone commenting on the Chicago Breaking News website will realize that your “Kingdom” that you call the United States, is Collapsing right in front of your eyes. If you want to know why someone is defaulting on their mortgage, raising ticket prices, murdering their family members in Darien, dying in Afghanistan, raising taxes, laying off teachers, being hit by Metra trains, releasing prisoners, suiciding Micheal Scott and the Police in Tinley Park creating crimes to save their Jobs/Pensions, look no further than the Collapse of the FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM. WAKE UP! GAME OVER!
If the Cubs were smart they would buy this property. They could use the space in the lower levels for office space and clear out more space in Wrigley for more bathrooms and whatnot.
The owner of this property is trying to rent out a $1Million renovation at 441 Surf as well. He advertises himself as the listing broker despite the fact that he has not had a license since 2005. This is probably the diversion to which the bank refers.
I thought Eamus Catuli meant “we steal other people’s products”.
Eamus Catalinas means cant pay me no interest.
Eamus Catuli = All Your Baseball Are Belong to Us
[['Eamus Catuli' Wrigley rooftop club in foreclosure]]
….good.
Bonus novus
Hey, I’d sit at one of those places any day over the charming yet nasty confines of Wrigley…done that plenty of times, but the roof top places are a helluva lot more fun and still give a great view of the game. My guess is some corrupt politicians are angling to scam it for themselves and their cronies…keep an open for who ends up buying it…
Anus Catuli
Let’s just say that the defendants really are getting what they deserve here. A group of classless blowhards getting exactly what they deserve. Hey Mr Defendant, no one cares who you claim you know. You couldn’t be more full of it and it is so great to see you eat crow! No one ever believed your stories anyway, enjoy the descent, too bad you stepped on everyone you know on the way up!!! Payback is a …..
Knock all the buildings down and as the song goes, “Put up a parking lot”
And, by the way, everyone who knows you thinks this is hilarious!!!!!!!!
A little ironic that an anagram of ‘EAMUS CATULI’ is “I AM A CULT USE’
I remember when the gin mill on that corner was Ray’s Bleachers.
Programs cost a dime-hotdogs-popcorn a dime and a nickel-a beer set you back two-bits. The bleachers 40 cents- grandstand $1.50.
Most of the people in the Park knew how to keep score, and they could tell second base from a fireplug, as well.
Can’t say any of these things today.
People today must have spent all their brains on the “too much for their own good money”, they toss around.
Pity the poor trib writer thinks “the bank ‘loaned’ him the money”.
Perhaps the trib will get lucky and find a writer that can tell a verb from a noun.
Ubi est mea?
FrequentFlyer: You should be offended as a Cub fan, by the team’s lack of a WS ring in over 100 years!
This is hilarious. A cash cow going under, the owners should be ashamed and are an absolute joke. They must run that place just like the Cubs are run, poor spending, poor team year in and year out. Maybe next year!
One of the other rooftops will swoop in and buy it for a song before anyone else even knows about it.
At least on the rooftops there’s no danger of getting hit on the head by falling concrete.
It probably means “like father like son”….Is this how you do business? by stepping over everyone!
“Eamus Catuli”—-I thought that was “loyal losers”
WHO CARES!!!
Why don’t the Cubs buy all of the buildings and make them a logical extension of the park?
Emus el fuc-kus …who gives a sh-it!
Maybe because they’re on the other side of a city street Don?