{"id":786904,"date":"2026-05-10T16:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T16:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/786904\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T16:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T16:37:16","slug":"llj-defaults-on-lincoln-park-loan-despite-armitage-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/786904\/","title":{"rendered":"LLJ Defaults on Lincoln Park Loan Despite Armitage Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strolling down Lincoln Park\u2019s Armitage Avenue<\/a> lately, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find many empty storefronts. Retailers are flocking to Chicago\u2019s spendy North Side, cementing the high-street corridor as a premier playground for boutiques and digitally native brands establishing a brick-and-mortar presence.<\/p>\n

Even in a booming real estate scene, however, there\u2019s a little distress<\/a> for those who know where to look.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s head-scratcher comes from The Armitage Collection at 1123-1131 West Armitage Avenue. Word in financial trenches is that the borrower, San Diego-based property investment firm LLJ Ventures, tripped up on a Jan. 6 maturity date, defaulting on nearly $10 million it still owes on a loan against the 33,000-square-foot property. Public loan data from last month reveals the commercial mortgage-backed security debt\u2019s special servicer, PNC Bank-owned Midland Loan Services, is prepping a foreclosure complaint, as well as a request for receivership to start the process of taking title to the property. The loan was taken out by LLJ in late 2015.<\/p>\n

But Midland is also leaving the door open to keeping the keys in LLJ\u2019s hands. The special servicer is considering a loan modification that could give the landlord more time to repay the debt, while keeping the threat of foreclosure an option during negotiations over terms of the workout.<\/p>\n

Reached by phone Friday, LLJ\u2019s Flavio Borquez said the firm is close to an agreement with Midland that would give the landlord some more runway with the property, and expects to avoid a formal foreclosure process. He declined to share details of the potential terms of the agreement.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where the tea leaves get cryptic for opportunistic buyers: Chicago-based brokerage Mid-America Real Estate<\/a> since September has been shopping the property for sale on behalf of LLJ, asking $10.5 million, according to a marketing flyer. The property looks stable on paper, as it\u2019s pulling in nearly $738,000 in yearly net operating income and boasts a 9.4-year weighted average lease term.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s anchored by The Goddard School, which just inked a 10-year renewal to take its stay through September 2036, and rounded out by trendy lifestyle tenants like high-end fitness club Studio Lagree, Armitage Allergy & Asthma Associates and luxury pet wellness studio Bowie Barker. Mid-America\u2019s marketing materials emphasize the site\u2019s future upside stemming from its proximity to the $3 billion Foundry Park riverfront megaproject<\/a> that\u2019s being revived by Jim Letchinger\u2019s JDL<\/a> and Kayne Anderson from the ashes of embattled Sterling Bay\u2019s failed Lincoln Yards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The listing price translates to a 7 percent capitalization rate, according to Mid-America. But take a peek at the loan documents, and you\u2019ll spot a freshly minted March appraisal pinning the property\u2019s value at $13.1 million \u2014 far above the asking price. It\u2019s unclear what\u2019s driving the gap between the recent appraisal and the listing price, as Borquez declined to comment on the marketing process.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the appraisal is taking into account more than current leasing revenue, by looking at the huge development play to the west. JDL and Kayne plan to build 3,200 new housing units as part of Foundry Park, focusing on apartments to start. With the potential load of new residents and upgraded commercial infrastructure on the horizon, The Armitage Collection might just be at the bottom of the neighborhood\u2019s next big real estate wave.<\/p>\n

First, though, it has to get through Midland\u2019s scrutiny.<\/p>\n

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Armitage Avenue heats up as retailers flock to North Side<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strolling down Lincoln Park\u2019s Armitage Avenue lately, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find many empty storefronts. Retailers are flocking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":786905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[321625,960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-786904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-armitage-avenue-retail-loan-default","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}