Old Town Hotel Site Sells for $11.4M at Foreclosure Auction

A Cook County judicial sale closed Oct. 28 on the Old Town property at 1520-1532 North Wells Street for $11,373,770.13, according to the Judicial Sales Corporation’s completed-sales record, case 2025 CH 04335. The sale went to the plaintiff on a credit bid matching the opening bid exactly, a sign the lender took the property back rather than selling it to a third party. The case’s law firm of record is Noonan & Lieberman, which represents mortgage lenders in Cook County foreclosure actions; the sale had originally been set for Oct. 26 before being continued two days.

The address matches the site of developer Condor Partners’ long-stalled “Duke of Wells” hotel plan. The Real Deal reported in April 2025 that Canadian lender CIBC Bank had sued Condor and its principal, Sol Barket, claiming more than $10.2 million owed after the pair defaulted in 2021 on a loan originally made in 2018, the same year Condor paid $15 million for the site. Condor had spent more than five years pursuing a 203-key hotel at the address and had secured a demolition permit for the existing three-story structure at 1520 North Wells, according to the outlet. A separate $4 million junior loan from Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust had been modified 15 times against the property since 2020.

Why it matters

A stalled hotel site in one of the North Side’s most visible commercial corridors has changed hands through foreclosure rather than a negotiated sale, the outcome Condor Partners spent more than a year trying to avoid after a similar fight over its Pilsen project, Mural Park, ended in a refinancing instead of a lender takeover.

The numbers

The judicial sale closed at $11.4 million, roughly $1.1 million above the $10.2 million CIBC claimed owed in April 2025, consistent with 18 months of accrued interest and fees on the defaulted debt reported at that time.

What’s next

With the sale now recorded, the lender controls the Wells Street parcel and the stalled hotel entitlement that came with it. Developers watching Old Town and Lincoln Park sites can track how it resurfaces at Chicago.