Politically connected real estate investor Allison Davis is fighting to regain control of a real estate investment fund his firm managed before its main backers, five local public pension plans, fired the company about a year ago.

Mr. Davis is appealing a judge’s decision backing the dismissal by the retirement plans.
The pension systems fired Mr. Davis’ Chicago-based company, DV Realty Advisors LLC, in early 2012, alleging DV failed to provide audited financial statements in a timely manner and lost money, posting a negative 28.5 percent return since the fund’s inception. Last …

Here’s Crain’s doing about 80% of the work on a story about a Rezko development in the South Loop
Even after Antoin “Tony” Rezko was sent off to federal prison, his bold plan for a massive mixed-use development in the South Loop lived on, just waiting for the real estate market to return and another developer to pick up where he left off.
…..

 
Mr. Rezko’s political troubles heated up before he could start the development, and he sold the property for about $131 million in 2005 to Luxembourg-based conglomerate General Mediterranean Holding …

City and state officials today are announcing the latest step in their effort to revitalize McCormick Place: construction of a 1,200-room hotel adjacent to the convention center.

In a statement made available to Crain’s, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Pat Quinn say the $400 million tower, as yet unnamed, will give Chicago an additional weapon to compete
Read more at Crains

This month, the Illinois Assembly takes up the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, which would grant same-sex couples the freedom to marry. In an effort to defeat the bill, opponents argue that it could infringe on religious liberty by permitting lesbian or gay couples to sue churches for refusing to rent parish halls.

Government can never force clergy or religious denominations to marry anyone, and the bill prohibits lawsuits based on a church’s refusal. Illinois has one of the most extensive religious freedom protections nationwide, and the bill expressly states …

A federal judge in Chicago has rejected a motion by former Broadway Bank CEO Demetris Giannoulias and other defendants to dismiss a $114 million lawsuit by federal regulators who alleged that reckless lending by the directors and officers doomed the bank to failure.
U.S. District Judge John Grady’s Jan. 16 order allows the case to proceed. Mr. Giannoulias, brother of former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, and the other defendants, including former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon, who was a bank board member, now will have to file a detailed response to …

The state agency managing the College Illinois prepaid tuition program expects to lose more than half its $10 million investment in luxury hybrid-car startup Fisker Automotive.

 
 
The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which runs the $1.1 billion fund backing the college savings plan used by more than 30,000 Illinois families, disclosed the bad news at its Sept. 14 meeting, spokesman John Samuels said.
Read more at Crain’s

Buried deep inside Crain’s
DuPage County Board President Dan Cronin reports that, after meeting with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Congressman Peter Roskam, R-Wheaton, and others in Washington last week, he is “very confident” that he’ll be able to finally obtain needed funds to provide western road access to O’Hare International Airport.
Specifically, Mr. Cronin wants $300 million from the feds to lever $3.1 billion offered by the state to build the Elgin-O’Hare tollway.
Congressional sources confirm that at least one program funded in the new bill may well fit the bill.

 
image gratuitous …

In a statement, Demetris Giannoulias, Alexi’s older brother, said, “The facts in this complaint are simply not accurate. The FDIC now blames Broadway’s former officers and directors for not anticipating the same unprecedented market forces that also surprised central bankers, national banks, economists, major Wall Street firms, and the regulators themselves. Every officer and director of Broadway Bank did their best for the institution and they will vigorously fight these unsubstantiated claims.”

The complaint highlights 17 loans in particular, which caused the $104 million in loans, and spotlights two that were …

The Press Release that wasn’t written from Crain’s Commenter Dennis O.
The statement probably should have read:
To prevent a national and international embarrassment in President Obama’s adopted home town of Chicago, before the presidential election, the president is inviting his fellow G-8 leaders to Camp David on May 18-19 for the G-8 Summit, which will be inaccessible to protesters. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not thrilled with this last minute change of plans, but Chicago will be reimbursed for the cost of all the police training that took place …

Politically connected Chicago real estate investor Allison Davis has sued five Chicago-area public employee retirement funds that are trying to dump his firm as the manager of $67 million of their money.

 
The lawsuit comes almost three years after a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, Robert Vanecko, quit as a general partner of the Davis fund, which had become the subject of federal and city probes examining how it got the pension money.
 
The complaint alleges that the five pension plans, which invest money on behalf of city employees, wrongfully …