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Lender that took over Mutual Bank files foreclosure suits
By Andrew Schroedter
Crain's Chicago Business
October 27, 2009
Three months after taking over Mutual Bank from the FDIC, a Texas bank is cleaning up the troubled loan portfolio of the shuttered Harvey financial institution, filing foreclosure lawsuits to recover $7.54 million from a low-profile suburban hotel operator.
Garland, Texas-based United Central Bank acquired Mutual on July 31 from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which had seized Mutual, with assets of $1.6 billion. As part of the sale, the FDIC agreed to share any losses with United Central on $1.3 billion of Mutual’s assets. The FDIC has estimated that closing Mutual will cost the government $696 million.
United Central has filed eight commercial foreclosure lawsuits since Aug. 25 in Cook County, including four cases filed this month against hotel operator Samuel Alexander and a related venture, according to the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s Web site.
Mutual Bank filed just 19 foreclosure cases in Cook County between Jan. 1 and its takeover by the FDIC, according to the clerk’s online records.
Ronald Damashek, a partner at Chicago-based law firm Stahl Cowen Crowley Addis LLC, which represents United Central in the Alexander cases, declines to comment.
In one lawsuit, United Central alleges that a venture controlled by Mr. Alexander owes $4.48 million on a loan for America’s Best Value Inn at 6450 W. Touhy Ave. in north suburban Niles. Sam & R Enterprise Inc. paid $5.5 million in May 2005 for the 141-room hotel, financing the acquisition with a $4.4-million loan from Harvey-based Mutual Bank, according to property records.
A message left for Mr. Samuel Alexander, president of Sam & R, was not returned.
The bank is also seeking to collect $1.94 million on the Midway Inn, 5335 S. Pulaski Road; more than $682,000 on a mixed-use building that’s home to Siam Noodle & Rice Restaurant, at 1001-07 W. Leland Ave., and $438,372 for the Lakeview Food Pantry at 733 W. Sheridan Road.