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Troubled Chateau Hotel Sold to Local Investors, Alderman Says

By Serena Dai | January 17, 2013 6:48am | Updated on January 17, 2013 10:12am
 Hotel Chateau, one of the last remaining single room occupancy hotels in Lakeview, has been purchased by local investors.
Hotel Chateau, one of the last remaining single room occupancy hotels in Lakeview, has been purchased by local investors.
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DNAinfo/Benjamin Woodard

LAKEVIEW — A troubled hotel that provided one of the last options for independent low-income housing in the neighborhood has been sold to local investors, according to the local alderman.

Ald. James Cappleman (46th) wrote that Chateau Hotel, 3838 N. Broadway Ave., has been sold and is now in a land trust. Area residents and businesses have continuously complained of fighting, drug dealing and panhandling outside the hotel, and Cappleman prioritized pressuring former owner Jack Gore to fix numerous building code violations.

Gore also owned the former Diplomat Hotel in Lakeview that the city shut down in 2009 for building violations. The Diplomat is now being refurbished to provide housing for the mentally ill.

"I organized meetings with residents of the Chateau Hotel, community members, and local housing organizations requesting better management of the property owner," Cappleman wrote. "Unfortunately, the property owner was not responsive to the community's concerns."

Details of who bought the single room occupancy hotel will be revealed at a housing court hearing at 11 a.m. on Jan. 29, Cappleman said.

Some single room occupancy hotels in Lakeview have been turned into housing for social service agencies and others marketed as trendy housing. Area nonprofits have expressed concern about diminishing housing options for low-income people.

"The truth is there aren't that many options for people who want to live independently in an SRO and in a safe neighborhood like Lakeview and Lincoln Park," Bharathi Gunasekaran of Lakeview Action Coalition said when rumors were spreading about a potential sale. "People are going to end up homeless."