Chicago Park District Wants Out of Obama Fundraiser's Deal: $10-a-year parking garage lease for 374 Years

Obama fundraiser Fred Eychaner is in the news. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Call it the deal of a century -- or four centuries, perhaps.

For just $10 a year, Ogden Plaza Garage Co. leases land from the Chicago Park District for a lucrative parking garage in Streeterville.

And the deal is good for 374 more years.

Now, at a time when Chicago and other cash-strapped cities around the country are wringing all assets for extra cash, the Park District wants a better deal. It says taxpayers have already lost out on millions of dollars in rent over the last two decades and wants the garage to pay at least $290,000 a year under a new agreement, plus back charges.


The district sued the garage company in Cook County Circuit Court this month, claiming that past officials, including former Park Board President Richard Devine, didn't follow the "public trust doctrine" in 1991 when the board unanimously approved the lease, which was retroactive to 1988. That doctrine, established by a Supreme Court case, prohibits a private party from using public property with no public benefit, the suit argues.

"It's generating revenue, and none of that is going back to the taxpayer," said Maria Garcia, general counsel for the district. "The board did not have that authority."

But lawyers for the company, which is owned by media mogul and top political financier Fred Eychaner, argue that a deal is a deal.

Remember when the MSM told you Obama wasn't part of the Machine?