By the time the city sued her, absentee owner Suzie B. Wilson had let hundreds of properties on Chicago’s South and West sides become so infested with rats and filled with trash and weeds that she owed more than $15 million in fines.
Now, as a result of that case, a Chicago real estate company is selling off more than 800 properties in the South and West side neighborhoods, the largest mass land sale in the city in years.
The sale is tied to a high-profile bankruptcy case against Wilson and her sister, Swedlana Dass — legal action that came out of a joint investigation by the Illinois Answers Project and Block Club Chicago.
The city is accusing the suburban property owners of fraud for building an “empire of neglected and hazardous vacant lots,” then filing for bankruptcy while skipping out on millions of dollars in unpaid tickets and legal judgments.
The city took sweeping legal action against the property owners after the 2023 investigation by Illinois Answers and Block Club found companies tied to Wilson had racked up more than $15 million in fines for rat-related code violations. Wilson was one of the most egregious examples of how poor city enforcement allowed scofflaw property owners to duck accountability while their properties became neighborhood blights.
Hilco Real Estate is now auctioning off 812 lots owned by Wilson and Dass. The two property owners are legally required to sell the parcels after filing for bankruptcy.
The portfolio includes mostly vacant lots spread out across the South and West sides, some along commercial corridors on Lake, State and LaSalle streets, Ashland Avenue and Pulaski Road. The largest site includes five parcels on the 5600 block of South State Street, according to a Hilco news release.
In the release, the brokerage said the sale is a “once-in-a-lifetime acquisition opportunity” for investors and neighboring property owners looking to help revitalize South and West side neighborhoods.
As selling points, the brokerage highlighted the parcels’ proximity to the United Center, future Obama Presidential Library, Garfield Park Conservatory and planned CTA Red Line extension.
Hilco is accepting offers for individual sites or multiple sites at once. Buyers can also purchase the whole portfolio. The deadline for bidding is March 7.
The mass land sale is the latest development in the city’s legal proceedings against Wilson, which stretch back years.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Wilson and her late husband, tax attorney Michael Wilson, bought hundreds of lots through Cook County’s tax and scavenger sales — a system that allows buyers to take control of properties after previous owners fall behind on property taxes.
But over the years, the Wilsons and Dass — through myriad companies with names such as Dagny, Daisyland, Darcy, Darden and Debrox — neglected the parcels. They allowed weeds to grow and garbage to accumulate, creating a breeding ground for rats and spreading blight and disinvestment in impoverished communities.
The city has taken actions against the property owners for what it calls “public safety violations” and won judgments against them at city hearings.
Yet as of summer 2023, the entities controlled by Wilson and Dass had paid less than one-half of 1% of what they owed to the city, the investigation found.
Last year, after Illinois Answers Project and Block Club Chicago highlighted the negligence, city attorneys went after Wilson with multiple lawsuits.
In April, the city sued Wilson for $10 million over a West Englewood lot she owns that for years has been a dumpsite for hundreds of decomposing rubber tires that “piled multiple feet in the air.” In that suit, the city claimed Wilson is a “scourge on the city and its residents” and “the city’s worst landowner.”
City attorneys then went after Wilson and Dass, alleging in federal court that their attempts to wipe away debt by transferring their properties “like candy” to businesses based in South Dakota was a clear case of fraud.
The city alleges Wilson and Dass wrote checks to themselves out of shell companies as “fake loans,” took out huge loans “without any legitimate reason” and “failed to produce even the most basic documents regarding” their financial affairs, according to previous Illinois Answers reporting.
Mary Richardson-Lowry, Chicago’s corporation counsel, previously told Illinois Answers the city is cracking down on its largest debtors. City attorneys are going after 10 other significant debtors who collectively owe the city $26.3 million in unpaid fines, Richardson-Lowry said.
Contributing: Casey Toner, Illinois Answers Project
