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City Within a City: The Biography of Chicago’s Marina City
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Bankruptcy case 88-17840
November 18, 1988
Photo by Steven Dahlman
(Above) Marina City from directly across the Chicago River after sunset on June 15, 2007.
It is 1988. The numerous lawsuits and appeals have not been filed yet – not Bertrand Goldberg v. Goldstein, Goldstein v. Flanagan, Goldstein v. Marina Towers Condominium Association, Marina Towers Condominium Association v. Niki Development Corporation, or even Marina City Associates v. Goldstein.

There was just the Chapter 7 bankruptcy of Marina City Associates, at one time the owner of all commercial property at Marina City.

The involuntary petition was filed in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois on November 18, 1988, and would not officially close until 12 years, four months, and nine days later, on March 26, 2001.

At the same time, Marina City Associates was filing for bankruptcy in Texas, where it was a limited partnership. E. Trine Starnes, Jr. signed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy on April 6, 1988.

In a document filed in Cook County Circuit Court on March 14, 1988, an attorney for Continental Savings Association said Starnes did not dispute that Marina City generated insufficient income to cover operating costs or make needed repairs, let alone service the mortgage debt.

Collen, Golin, Schmetterer

(Above) John Collen, David Golin, and Judge Jack B. Schmetterer.

John Collen, of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, represented Marina City Associates, along with David A. Golin of Arnstein & Lehr LLP, both Chicago law firms. The bankruptcy trustee was Ilene F. Goldstein, an attorney whose offices were located north of Chicago in Highland Park.

The case, number 88-17840, was assigned to Judge Jack B. Schmetterer, who had been appointed to his first 14-year term in 1985.

The 1980s would end with the commercial property at Marina City a whisper of its younger self, far from the euphoric optimism of the 1960s. Bankrupt. Run by court-appointed officials on a shoestring budget, having left a long trail of creditors. Its tenant spaces mostly empty and deteriorating, with no rescue in sight.

And it would get worse.

Written by Steven Dahlman
Presented for nonprofit educational purposes