Troutman dad got rehab deal
WOODLAWN | Father of indicted alderman received $500K loan to redevelop apartments
A dozen years ago, Ald. Arenda Troutman's father owned a nine-unit apartment building that was surrounded by seven other decrepit buildings on Chicago's South Side.
The Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp. -- a powerful not-for-profit community development group, known as WPIC and led by Bishop Arthur Brazier -- wanted to take over and redevelop all of the buildings as apartments for low-income tenants.
The Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp. -- a powerful not-for-profit community development group, known as WPIC and led by Bishop Arthur Brazier -- wanted to take over and redevelop all of the buildings as apartments for low-income tenants.
Brazier's group and its partner, Antoin "Tony'' Rezko's company, ended up getting most of what they wanted. They rehabbed all but one of the buildings -- the one owned by Troutman's father. Benjamin Troutman wouldn't sell.
(Rich Hein/Sun-Times)
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
Brazier's group and its partner, Antoin "Tony'' Rezko's company, ended up getting most of what they wanted. They rehabbed all but one of the buildings -- the one owned by Troutman's father. Benjamin Troutman wouldn't sell.
But, using the same contractor and same architect WPIC and Rezmar Corp. used -- the same people Rezmar used to rehab all 30 of the low-income apartment buildings they operated -- Troutman got his building rehabbed.
And he got to keep it.
Brazier and Rezko got a city loan to fix up their seven buildings.
Troutman wasn't eligible for a city loan, state records show, because his daughter was an alderman. So, with the help of another Brazier not-for-profit group -- the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization -- Troutman's father got a $500,000 loan from the state to fix up his building.
The alderman gave her support to all of these projects providing apartments for the poor, city and state records show -- the WPIC/ Rezmar buildings and her father's.
Troutman wouldn't talk about whether she backed Rezko's projects in order to get support for her father's. The alderman didn't return phone calls seeking comment.
Troutman was indicted earlier this year on charges that, in exchange for her support for a proposed development, she took $5,000 in cash from someone she thought was a developer. It turned out to be an undercover agent, according to the FBI.
Troutman has received more than $20,000 in campaign contributions from Rezko, his family, his businesses and business associates, records show.
Rezmar's architect, Phillip Kupritz, said the alderman -- who lost her bid for re-election in February -- had nothing to do with the rehab project on her father's building.
"It was an independent project for Ben Troutman,'' Kupritz said in an interview. "We were working in the area. Ben called us. He said: 'I want help.' He was one of the most lovable people on the face of the earth. He would always have a trunkful of apples.''
Troutman's father died soon after his building was fixed up. His wife, Iris Whitmal Troutman, and son Phillip now manage the building at 1025 E. 62nd St.
The Benjamin Troutman Apartments have been cited by state inspectors for a series of minor problems, records show. An inspector also noted a more-basic problem: The building has just nine apartments. Troutman's father told the state it would have 10, but no one ever got a zoning variance to put an apartment in the basement, state records show.
An inspector also found another possible problem: The alderman's mother apparently was living for a time in one of the low-income apartments.
"Mrs. Troutman appears to be living in one of the units,'' according to the state inspector's April 9, 1999, report. "I didn't notice a lease with her name on it.''