North Aurora gives business more time to repay $200,000 loan

A building owner will get more time to repay a $200,000 loan to North Aurora, the village board decided Monday.

The board approved a forbearance agreement, saying it will stop pursuing a lawsuit against Lot 10 Ventures LLC if it agrees to a new timeline for paying the remaining $167,161 it owes, plus interest and late fees.

“It’s the only protection we have to get something going,” Village President Dale Berman said, calling it a “crap shoot.” He hopes that a forbearance agreement may help the owner avoid foreclosure and eventually repay the village.

The village’s loan is subordinate to a bank’s loan. Harris Bank filed a foreclosure suit Aug. 12. It had lent Lot 10 LLC and other parties $2.93 million in 2008, according to records with the Kane County Recorder of Deeds. If the bank’s motion is granted, the village may not see the money at all, according to Berman.

He declined to say how much longer the village will give the business to repay the loan because the business hasn’t signed the agreement yet.

In October 2012, the village sued Lot 10 Ventures, Jefferson River LLC, Washington River LLC, Sudesh Vohra and Neeraj Vohra for breach of contract. The next court date is Thursday.

The village lent the money to Lot 10 Ventures in June 2008 so the investors could buy a strip shopping center at 459 N. Randall Road. The building houses a restaurant and a sexual novelties store.

It was to be repaid within 10 years, but Lot 10 Ventures stopped paying in 2011, according to the village’s attorney, Kevin Drendel.

Berman stressed that villagers’ property taxes were not involved. The money came from a revolving-loan fund that was established in the early 1980s with money given by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. Loans are to be used to build or redevelop businesses that will provide low- to moderate-income jobs, according to the village’s 2013-14 budget. The fund began the fiscal year with $31,000.