Rezko and Gutierrez in land deal
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Is there anyone Rezko hasn’t touched?
Rep. Luis Gutierrez got a deal on a riverfront town house built by Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a developer and prominent political fund-raiser now under indictment for an alleged kickback scheme involving state pension funds.
Gutierrez paid $434,900 three years ago for the town house along the Chicago River just north of Diversey. That’s far less than his neighbors paid for any of the other riverfront town houses in the development, records show.
Gutierrez no longer lives there. In March, he sold the town house for $610,000 — a 40 percent profit.
Only two other original owners have sold their riverfront town houses — one paid $535,000 and sold it for $650,000, a 21 percent profit; the other paid $622,000 and sold it for $662,000, a 6 percent profit. […]
He could not explain why his neighbors all ended up paying much more than he did, even for slightly smaller homes. Some people might have canceled their pre-construction contracts or sold them for a profit as prices escalated in the booming neighborhood, Gutierrez said.
Rezmar’s attorney, Michael Sreenan, said some people do resell their “pre-construction contracts'’ before a project is completed “but not very often.'’ Sreenan said he couldn’t produce records to show if any other buyers got the same pre-construction price.
- Justice - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 7:38 am:
I guess the question now is what did Antoin exact from Rep. Luis Gutierrez for this “special†consideration? The devil is in the details!! Don’t you just love honest politicians…….do you know any? I’m getting more and more cynical every day, and more determined than ever to help change things. We need to clean up government and get rod of these losers (I mean get “Rid†of these losers!!)
- Pat Hickey - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 7:43 am:
Me! Tony, Call me. Me and the Kids want to get a little get-away - not too pricey - $ 400K No Down-stroke, No Points, No Sweat. I’m Your Dog - T!
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 7:47 am:
Who cares ? This all part of their perks. Ethics means nothing in Illinois.
- jerry - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 8:40 am:
seeing as how he’s my congressman, I did a little looking at opensecrets.org. The last donation to Gutierrez came in 2001, $2000. He’s also given money to John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Denise Majette (who?), Obama, Jesse Jr., and David Phelps (who?). There are other Rezkos giving money, too. Rita gave money to Gutierrez, Obama, and Peter Fitzgerald. Mr. Tony Rezko (also of Wilmette 60091 - can’t say if it’s Antoin or his father or something) gave money to George Bush.
Also, Gutierrez is on the financial services committee. Which includes oversight of home-builders.
I’m a partisan Democrat, but Luis has some explaining to do.
- JohnR - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 8:42 am:
If you read further into the story, you see that he agreed to buy the house in 1999. A 40 percent increase in 7 years in that area is actually a pretty terrible return.
A friend of mine just sold his home over there. He bought it in 1999 for 280,000. He sold it earlier this year for over $700k.
…Or, if you don’t want to believe that part, you can just realize the 40 percent profit in 3 years on the North Side of Chicago is actually about average.
And what I noticed about the “comparisons” in the story - it doesn’t say when the other people bought their townhouses, or when they sold their houses.
That’s the problem when you try to allege corruption in real estate - prices change so much on their own, it’s hard to distinguish between what equity profit is due to a “land deal” or what is just due to fluxuating valuations.
On the other hand, maybe that’s why politicians try to get away with it. I don’t know.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 9:49 am:
Whatever. You can see the chart that the Sun-Times provides. It’s not like he got in on the ground floor with this project, units that were the same size were sold long before his, from $60-225K more.
There’s more to it here than real estate market forces. I wonder how the new House Ethics Committee will deal with this. This goes well beyond the $50 a year he can take from Rezko as a gift.
- A. Nonymous - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 9:50 am:
Whatever. You can see the chart that the Sun-Times provides. It’s not like he got in on the ground floor with this project, units that were the same size were sold long before his, from $60-225K more.
There’s more to it here than real estate market forces. I wonder how the new House Ethics Committee will deal with this. This goes well beyond the $50 a year he can take from Rezko as a gift.
- Cassandra - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 12:19 pm:
Well, the Rezko soap opera goes on. It’s pretty clear that Rezko took to the Chicago way with
vengeance, doing favors for powerful politicians
in the hope of access to government loot. Bagojevich. Gutierrez. Obama (or, Obambi as Sneed calls him). He seems to have specialized in Democratic politicians but not totally. Dems must be more accessible.
Meanwhile, Rezko has progressed from being out on bail to being out on bail with electronic monitoring. They are “clarifying” his assets.
Looks like this soap opera won’t be ending any time soon.
I wonder about Joseph Duffy. Is he the go-to guy when you’re really in trouble? Seems to me I’ve heard his name before.
- Captain America - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 1:13 pm:
Rezco appeared to collect politicians like cmapaign buttons.
Absent an explcit quid pro quo,it is doubtful that anything illegal occurred: ethically questionable, but not illegal.
Real estate deals seem to be an alternative supplement to campaign contributions as a means of purchasing access to power/political decision-makers. I’ll bet sweetheart business deals for politicans and their close relatives have been routine for years - generally unscrutinized to the media and the general electorate.
- grand old partisan - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 3:14 pm:
“Is there anyone Rezko hasn’t touched?”
Name a Republican, and there’s your answer.
- Guy Fawkes - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 4:29 pm:
Didn’t Big Tony Rezko wire or transfer large sums of money to Syria, Mideast region & Europe for many years?
Sure would be serious situation if all these Illinois politicians were unknowingly supporting terrorism - Corruptovich, Obama, Gutierrez etc. . . . . .
Who and what else will be dug up in the coming weeks? Besides Mr. Fitzgerald investigating, shouldn’t the Department of Homeland Security seriously be investigating?
- deedoop - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 6:57 pm:
““Is there anyone Rezko hasn’t touched?â€
Name a Republican, and there’s your answer. ”
Bush. Edgar. Ryan.
More?
- NSA - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 8:08 pm:
Man, I can’t believe Guttierrez, after all the outrage he showed when talking about City Hall corruption, and his constant blasts at HDO, we now find our favorite corruption,blasting taxi driver involved with Rezko,the Syrian master spy for Middle East Islamo-Fascism!
I wonder if Looie G. would’nt make a big deal of this, if it was Rezko associated with another Hispanic politician? Or if Looie would keep his mouth shut,if the same deal was given to Mayor Daley?
I don’t know about you, but if I’m Patrick Fitzgerald and Homeland Security, I would seriously investigate Rezko, who to me appears a caricture from the Cold War,but was a sleeper agent for Syria and Iran.I would also see what deals he did with Obama and Guttierrez and see if it in any way compromised National Security!
- Angie - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 9:54 pm:
Wow. This guy is into everyone’s business. Is Tony the Jack Abramoff of Illinois, or what?
- Roy Slade - Tuesday, Nov 14, 06 @ 10:57 pm:
I had an old friend, who used to have a saying that reminds me of Rezko and his ilk. “I don’t want to be a stinking politician- I want to own one”!