The landlord of Chicago’s historic Clark Adams Building has filed for chapter 11 protection over a $29 million mortgage on the property, with the team that plans to redevelop it working to take ownership, The Real Deal reported. A venture led by local investor Musa Tadros submitted a bankruptcy petition in the federal Northern District of Illinois court on July 31, claiming that the entity that owns 105 West Adams Street has assets of less than $50,000, records show. The $178 million proposal from Chicago-based developers Celadon Partners and Blackwood Group would convert the Clark Adams Building’s upper floors, which are vacant office space, into 247 apartments, 185 of them affordable housing. Tadros has owned the building’s upper floors since at least 2006; the third through 10th floors are occupied by a Blackstone-owned Club Quarters business hotel, which is a distressed property itself and could be set up for a change in ownership after a recent transaction of mezzanine debt tied to the lodging portion of the tower. In 2020, lender First Midwest Bank filed a $23 million foreclosure suit against the Tadros-led venture that owns the office portion of the property, according to previously published reports. The property’s receiver put the more than 30 floors of the building Tadros owns up for sale in May 2022, but it hasn’t traded. A judgment of foreclosure was entered in the foreclosure case with First Midwest in December, online court docket records show, but it’s unclear when a lender-controlled sale may take place.
