Cubs win fight over McDonald’s property
By David Roeder Business Reporter April 3, 2012 7:20PM
Updated: May 5, 2012 8:19AM
With the baseball season about the start, the owners of the Chicago Cubs have notched their first victory, albeit a legal one.
The Ricketts family, owners of the Cubs, were fighting with a sports memorabilia shop over the right to sell souvenirs at Clark and Addison, across the street from Wrigley Field’s front gate. Chicago Sports and Novelty Inc. said it had a valid lease to sell wares on the property, part of a parking lot for a McDonald’s restaurant.
An attorney for Chicago Sports said Tuesday the case has been “amicably settled” and that a Ricketts-controlled investment group “is entitled to full and undisturbed use of the property at issue in the litigation.”
The attorney, Daniel Ryan of the firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, declined to say if there was a financial settlement for Chicago Sports.
The business said it operated on the corner during game days since 1970. It said it had a valid lease that was canceled after McDonald’s Corp. sold the property last November to the Rickettses for $20 million. The family has bought properties around the park to control their future development.
A Cubs spokesman could not be reached but said when the suit was filed in February that the Rickettses hoped for a settlement because “they have some great offerings planned for fans” at the location.
Chicago Sports operates a store at 1153 W. Addison, close to Wrigley.
