By Ben Joravsky
To understand his frustration one has to realize how far he has come since he moved to Chicago in 1976 as a 25-year-old Korean immigrant who spoke little English. For a few months he lived with his parents, both garment workers, in an apartment at Saint Louis and Wilson in Albany Park. Then, not knowing what else to do, he joined the army.
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By 1983 he owned the building in which his grocery was situated, as well as the house in Wilmette where he lives with his wife and three children. In 1987 he sold the building on Armitage and bought the Econolodge Motel on Mannheim Road near O’Hare Airport. He renovated it and ran it profitably. One day last year he was approached by Gerry Lee, also a Korean immigrant.
It was a 100-room motel built in a style better suited to Miami Beach than Chicago. Seo says Lee didn’t have money to fix the motel, which was vacant, boarded up, and in wretched shape. Moreover, Lee had fallen behind on his taxes. “The city had taken him to demolition court,” says Seo. “He was in danger of losing his property. I offered to buy it.”
On June 10 Seo, his lawyer, and his architect trekked to City Hall, where they learned that the city had sent Gerry Lee a letter on April 2 informing him that “the Department of Planning and Development is seeking authority to acquire [your] property located within Near South Tax Increment Financing Redevelopment District. The City having the authority to acquire the property does not necessarily mean that the City intends to acquire it. It simply means the City may purchase the property at the fair market value.”
In August Seo went to court to ask that the judge dismiss the demolition case. “I showed the building plans, the agreement with the Comfort Inn, and the loan agreement from LaSalle,” says John Lee. “I told him the old demolition case no longer applies, because we have a new owner with money. To my surprise, the city opposed our request and asked for more time to respond.”
