Mt. Prospect abandons condemnation of Ye Olde Town Inn

After three years of legal battles, Mount Prospect officials have ended their efforts to take over the Ye Olde Town Inn, blaming the collapse of the real estate market.

The village issued a statement Thursday, four days before it would have faced the property's owner, Tod Curtis, in court.

"The village board has an obligation to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money," Mayor Irvana Wilks said in the statement. "With the prospect of having to pay significantly more than we feel the property is worth, we consider it prudent to walk away."

Village officials have been buying and redeveloping property in downtown Mount Prospect since the 1990s. In January 2007, the village started eminent domain proceedings against the property, which Curtis has fought.

Curtis has also filed a separate federal lawsuit against village officials alleging they have formed an "ongoing enterprise and scheme" for nearly a decade to develop the downtown without him.

When reached on Thursday, Curtis said he didn't know about the village's decision to stop pursuing the restaurant and pub.

"This is the first I've heard about this, and all I can say is that it's good for me," Curtis said, declining to comment further on his plans.

Because the building at 18 W. Busse Ave. is in the village's tax increment financing district, the village would have to pay Curtis what the property was worth in 2007, not what it is worth today, Village Manager Mike Janonis said. A TIF district freezes a property's assessment for the length of the TIF.

"Given the current economy and the likelihood of having to pay 2007 prices, it made sense to end this matter now," Janonis said.

However, Mount Prospect won't be able to walk away from the issue completely - they will have to pay for Curtis' legal fees associated with his efforts to fight the acquisition. Janonis estimates that figure to be more than $100,000.

Way more, Curtis said.

"It's much, much larger than that," he said, but he didn't know Thursday the estimated total of his legal bills.

Janonis said whatever that figure is, it will probably be better than the 2007 purchase price for the property, which he estimated could exceed $2 million.

"A judge will determine that amount," Janonis said. "It can't be excessive."

Meanwhile, Curtis's racketeering lawsuit against the village will go on.

According to that lawsuit, village officials "employed endless harassing inspections of the property."

Curtis also alleges the village allowed the Blues Bar, owned by local developer and dentist Errol Oztekin, to be built next door, even though they knew it would damage Ye Olde Town Inn because the establishments share a wall.

Janonis and Wilks have repeatedly denied the claims.