The financial empire of William Cellini
Cellini's company, New Frontier, has developed and manages apartment projects throughout the state, usually for senior citizens, and nearly always with state or federal financing. Since 1976, New Frontier has built 10 apartment projects with $ 90 million in low-interest loans from the Illinois Housing Development Authority. The company has done little new construction since Cellini's partner, Lawrence Haddad, died in 1984, but it continues to manage more than 4,000 apartments for its own portfolio as well as other developers in Chicago, the suburbs and Downstate. The company's latest project: managing (but not owning) Maple Pointe on Chicago's Near North Side.
Cellini developed and leased six major office buildings to the state starting in 1979, becoming one of state government's biggest landlords. At one point, the state paid $ 10 million a year to lease those buildings from New Frontier. Cellini has sold all of the buildings, but New Frontier has continued to manage them. Six years ago, Cellini built a telecommunications center near the state Capitol and then sold the building for $ 12.1 million to Illinois Bell (now Ameritech), which leases the property to the state.
Cellini formed President Lincoln Hotel Corp. and borrowed $ 15 million from a special state loan program in 1982 to fulfill his dream of building a luxury hotel in downtown Springfield. No individual was supposed to receive more than one loan from the $ 118 million program, but Cellini was also a partner in another group that got an $ 18.2 million state loan to build a new office building at 211 E. Ontario. The Chicago office building was a huge success for Cellini and his partners, who repaid the $ 18.2 million to the state and then sold the building for $ 29.3 million. The hotel, however, has been a nightmare. Cellini and his partners got the state to renegotiate the loan twice, lowering the interest rate from 12.5 percent to 6 percent. The hotel is now worth less than the original $ 15 million, but Cellini and his partners owe the state more than $ 19 million. Now they are suing the state to settle the loan for $ 3.8 million.
Cellini has spent 23 years as top executive of the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association, a group that represents road builders, engineering firms and other companies that work on state highways. He is also the executive director of the Illinois Concrete Pipe Association, the Illinois Association of Wastewater Agencies, and the Precast Prestressed Producers of Illinois. Cellini represents and lobbies for the association members who bid for state contracts, particularly with the Illinois Department of Transportation, the agency Cellini created. The association members are reliable sources of campaign contributions for Gov. Edgar and various other state officials. The pavement asociation holds its annual meeting in Cellini's state-financed hotel, where the members bestow their man of the year award, usually upon a state official such as Gov. James Thompson.
Cellini acts as a lobbyist for his own firms and for several clients. Sometimes he works alone; other times he lobbies with Robert Kjellander, the current national committeeman of the Illinois Republican Party and a former patronage director for Gov. James R. Thompson. While most lobbyists try to curry favor with legislators, Cellini has said that he doesn't bother with legislators. Rather, he devotes his efforts to the governor's office and state agencies. Among Cellini's lobbying clients are Chicago HMO, which provides managed care for welfare recipients, and Envirotest Technologies, which as the state contract for testing auto emissions.
Cellini is the chairman of Argosy Gaming Company, which runs the Alton Belle, the state's first riverboat casino. Cellini and his partners got the casino license from the Illinois Gaming Board two months before James Thompson left the governor's office. The state has since renewed the license. Cellini made $ 4.9 million when Argosy sold public stock in 1993. Cellini and his family currently own 1.8 million shares. The stock has dropped to about $ 7 a share from a high of $ 30. Argosy now has casino interests in five of the six states that allow riverboat gambling.
Cellini and his partner, Democrat Earl Deutsch, set up Commonwealth Realty Advisers in 1990 to manage real estate investments for pension funds. The state's Teachers Retirement System, which represents all teachers outside of Chicago, is the company's biggest client. The fund pays Commonwealth about $ 2 million a year to manage $ 500 million in assets. Cellini has transferred his Commonwalth interests to his son and daughter.