– Ilene F. Goldstein
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Before the foreclosure could take place, Marina City Associates declared bankruptcy in 1988 and – because a bankruptcy takes precedence over a foreclosure – the commercial property was put under the control of a federal bankruptcy trustee.
For the next 12 years, its court-appointed caretaker was Ilene F. Goldstein, an attorney from Highland Park north of Chicago. “Marina City saw me through my engagement and my marriage, the birth of my first and second child,” mused Goldstein in 2011, “and I used to joke with my husband it will probably see us through our divorce.” (Left) Ilene F. Goldstein |
After filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on November 18, 1988, Marina City Associates, led by E. Trine Starnes, Jr., no longer had control over the commercial property at Marina City. Goldstein was appointed to step into his shoes and find money to pay back dozens of creditors, from a Chicago locksmith that was owed $296 to Continental Savings Association, owed $16.5 million.
As trustee, Goldstein would work to liquidate the assets of Marina City Associates, to sell the commercial property to a third party who would, hopefully, make it more valuable. But with people living in a condominium community that had no official involvement with the bankruptcy case, Marina City could hardly be closed.
“It’s like a living, breathing entity,” said Goldstein. “There had to be a special order in this case authorizing me to operate even though generally you don’t operate in a Chapter 7, you just close it down and you sell it.”
Marina City, she said, was “an anomaly from the beginning” and “a very difficult property to deal with.”
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While real estate taxes had not been paid for several years, and Marina City had a huge unpaid mortgage, the property had a more immediate problem – a Commonwealth Edison bill for electric service of between two and three million dollars. The bill on June 2, 1988, for just one month was $142,999. Even though there was not enough money coming in to pay these bills, Goldstein said Com Ed was patient for “a very, very long time.”
(Left) A Commonwealth Edison bill for one month of electric service to Marina City’s commercial property, dated June 2, 1988, in the amount of $142,999.52, the equivalent of $382,333.45 in 2024. If not paid by June 16, 1988, according to the bill, an additional $187.30 would be due. |
Inevitably, though, they had to meet with Com Ed at Marina City’s electrical plant to determine when and how service to the commercial property would be disconnected.
“As luck would have it,” said Goldstein, “this electrical plant was so complicated and so antiquated that Commonwealth Edison and...everyone was afraid to turn it off, because they were afraid of what might happen.” |
(Left) General Electric equipment, comparable to what Goldstein would have seen, on the 19th floor of Marina City’s west tower parking ramp, photographed in 2012. |
Com Ed would be granted a lien against the property, the value of which was estimated at the time at $30-50 million. By keeping the electricity switched on, explained Goldstein, “it wasn’t like they were hurting their bottom line.”
“Obviously, an operating building with electricity,” she said, “there was a better chance I was going to sell it.”
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