According to
Crain's Chicago Business, an Uptown bank was teetering on the brink of failure until an angel appeared. American Metro Bank was down to $662,000 in equity when Sidney Lee, the owner of Golden Country Oriental Foods, pledged $3million to help it out.
The entire story is here. We hope this cash infusion puts American Metro back on the right path.
Mr. Lee certainly is a brave soul in giving the amount of money he has. It is only buying a short period of time before this bank meets it`s doomed future. There have been 38 failed banks so far for 2012 and 34 for the whole year of 2011 which can be viewed at the FDIC failed bank lists.
ReplyDeleteInteresting side note - for more than 3 years, AMC has been fighting with Broadway Bank (now MB Financial) over ownership of the commercial space at 1101-1113 W Lawrence Ave, including the Chase Bank space and the old Kinetic Playground space. I believe the parking lot behind the building is also included in the suit, though I'm not sure. Both banks loaned money to Lawrence Properties, LLC, the LLC owned by Jimmy Gouskos and Alex Dobroveanu (now serving prison time of 18 years and 4 years, respectively). When the loans went bad, they couldn't agree on what portion of the property they were entitled to, so they've been fighting it out in court. The bad loan made by Broadway Bank to Lawrence Properties LLC, is mentioned in the FDIC case against Broadway Bank: http://www.dandodiary.com/uploads/file/broadway.pdf.
ReplyDeleteHoping they will resolve the issue soon, as I think that may be one obstacle to renovating and filling the commercial space.
Sorry - meant AMB, American Metro Bank, not AMC.
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