The Skokie Village Board of Trustees voted to reject a developer’s proposal to build a six-story building with 58 apartments, a children’s therapy office, and a restaurant at downtown Skokie’s main intersection.
After various conditions were added to the developer’s proposal, trustees at their Dec. 1 meeting voted 4-2 against the development, citing concerns about the development’s businesses, the possible traffic impact caused by its location at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Oakton Street and the finances needed to complete the building’s construction.
The developer, who formerly owned an Irish pub in downtown Skokie, also has a history of late tax payments to the village, documents obtained through a records request show, and a federal bankruptcy judge once wrote that his dealings were “not honest,” according to court records.
“I have trouble supporting this development,” Mayor Ann Tennes said. “I believe that the (developer) is requesting extraordinary relief to fit something in that is not an approved use, especially in a prime retail location in our downtown,” she said.
“I’m not talking about the residential. I’m talking about the proportional exception use for the Action Behavior Center,” Tennes said, referring to the children’s therapy center which focuses on children with autism.
Tennes also took exception to the developer’s ask for a five-year time frame to build the development at 7952 Lincoln Ave. The developer’s team said the extended timeline was needed over concerns about the rising costs of building material and coordinating efforts with the Illinois Department of Transportation, because the development faces Lincoln Avenue, a state road.
Tennes successfully added a stipulation to the proposal that would have required the developer, Paul Leongas, the former owner of the Irish pub The Curragh, to provide proof that he has secured all of the construction financing needed to build the development in its entirety within three years of securing a building permit.
Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request showed that Leongas was several years late in paying thousands of dollars’ worth of food and beverage taxes to the village for his Irish pub The Curragh, which has since closed.
In May 2021, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled against Leongas’s plea for bankruptcy. According to the court’s filing’s, Leongas owed PNC Bank over $9.4 million, in connection to his four restaurants, including a Chicago location and the Skokie location of the Curragh. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Janet Baer wrote in her ruling that Leongas was “not honest” in his bankruptcy filings.
“(Leongas) engaged in a continuing course of actions in which he intentionally concealed his income and assets in order to defraud his creditors. He knowingly failed to produce adequate records to which both his creditors and the chapter 7 trustee were entitled so that they could accurately ascertain his true financial condition. And he made ‘false oaths’ with an intent to deceive by providing misleading, inaccurate, and false information in connection with his bankruptcy case,” the judge wrote.
“In sum, (Leongas) knowingly and fraudulently provided a false picture of his financial affairs in an effort to keep his income and assets out of the hands of both creditors and taxing bodies.”
In 2023, Leongas closed The Curragh on Northwest Highway in the Edison Park neighborhood of Chicago, along with a Giordano’s pizzeria and Mexican restaurant Que Onda which he and his siblings operated, according to reporting from Block Club Chicago.
This year, prior to the village’s review of the 7952 Lincoln Ave. proposal, Leongas was required to pay the village of Skokie nearly $50,000 in back taxes for 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 food and beverage taxes and an overdue water bill he owed from The Curragh’s Skokie location, according to emails shared with Pioneer Press through the Freedom of Information Act.
According to emails sent this past spring between Leongas and Julian Prendi, the village of Skokie’s finance director, Leongas initially rejected the idea that he could have owed the village so much money.
“There is no way the Skokie location had revenue that constitutes those totals,’ Leongas wrote to Prendi, questioning the amount of tax the village told Leongas he owed, in an email on May 15.
On May 20 at 4:33 p.m., Prendi wrote that the village got its figures from how much it was due in back taxes from The Curragh’s sales tax filings to the state, rather than Leongas’ federal tax returns.
Prendi acknowledged the village and Leongas’ previous agreement not to charge penalties for the back taxes. However, “We agreed to not charge penalties through 2020 IF payments were made according to the schedule. No payment was made, which is why we’re now charging the full penalty,” Prendi wrote.
The first time Leongas’ 7952 Lincoln development was presented to the village’s Plan Commission was on April 17, per village documents.
Leongas declined to comment to Pioneer Press for this story.
Patrick Deignan, the village of Skokie’s communications and community engagement director, told Pioneer Press that Leongas’ proposal was only able to advance to the Village Board after he paid his debts in full to the village.
