Children of Carol Vanecko: Mark G. Vanecko

CITY HALL LOBBYIST | Lollapalooza hired mayor's nephew

Mayor Daley's nephew Mark G. Vanecko has always been a guy who made it to Chicago's biggest concerts.

Now, Vanecko helps throw the city's biggest concert -- Lollapalooza, a three-day festival in August that will feature 120 bands in Grant Park.

Vanecko is a lawyer and lobbyist for the festival promoters.

In 2006, he got them a five-year deal with the Chicago Park District -- the Daley-controlled agency that had long been persnickety about rock concerts in Grant Park -- rejecting Chicago's Smashing Pumpkins but approving Radiohead.

"It had nothing to do with him being the mayor's nephew," said Charlie Jones, a manager of C3 Presents, which stages Lollapalooza. "Our deal was already done. It had nothing to do with that. So what?''

Before hiring Vanecko in 2006, Jones and his partners had held two Lollapalooza festivals in Grant Park. The first, in July 2005, was staged under a deal with the Parkways Foundation, a not-for-profit arm of the Park District. It raised $400,000 for park programs. A second festival, held in August 2006, raised $928,000.

Jones and his partners then hired Vanecko -- they'd met through a mutual friend -- to help negotiate the five-year deal that will pay the Park District $5 million. The first festival under that deal was held last August and drew 80,000 people.

Lollapalooza has had a major impact on Chicago's concert scene, upsetting other promoters, who say Jones and his partners now control the city's summer concerts by having so many bands playing in one location, and prohibiting those acts from performing in the area for weeks before and after Lollapalooza.

Lollapalooza's promoters are also part of a team that recently won a five-year contract from the Park District to manage Soldier Field. Jones said Vanecko didn't work on that deal: "He wanted nothing to do with it.''

Vanecko "does do work for us in other cities, but I don't really want to tell you what because we're working on other things,'' Jones said in an interview at his office in Austin, Texas.

Vanecko, 41, who lives in Lake View with his wife and baby, left his family's law firm of Daley & George a few years ago, opening his own legal practice, focusing on sports and entertainment. He also represents developers, including a company that bought and sold land near the mayor's proposed site for a temporary Olympic stadium. Vanecko is also a registered lobbyist, helping bars get liquor licenses from the mayor.

Vanecko's clients include:

•        Eurus Development, whose owners included developer Thomas Tully, a nephew of former Cook County Assessor Thomas Tully, and Nathan Freeborn, whose father is a partner in the Freeborn & Peters law firm. Four years ago, Vanecko was an attorney for Eurus, which paid $375,000 for four vacant lots just north of Washington Park, then resold them for $950,000. First, Eurus sold one lot to Freeborn for $450,000 in June 2006, less than three months before the mayor announced his plans for a temporary stadium in Washington Park if the city is picked to host the 2016 Olympics. About three weeks after Daley's announcement, Eurus sold the remaining land to the owners of Heneghan Wrecking Co. for $500,000.

"Our original intention was to buy and hold,'' said Tully, a childhood friend of Vanecko. "We had nothing to do with the Olympics. This was years before that.

"There was no connection between Mark Vanecko and the city," he said. "Mark Vanecko brought nothing to the table.''

•        James Banks, a zoning attorney who represents developers before the City Council Zoning Committee -- which is headed by his uncle Ald. William Banks (36th). Vanecko represents several businesses owned by James Banks, his wife, Grace Sergio, and her brother Vince Sergio. One of those companies is Rush Street Tavern. Banks owns a stake in the popular Tavern on Rush.

•        Kevin Killerman, a businessman who pleaded guilty in 1992 to 45 counts of serving alcohol to a minor at a North Side bar. Killerman owns several bars, including Casey Moran's across from Wrigley Field.

•        Dharmesh Purohit, owner of several Dunkin' Donuts stores. He paid Vanecko $7,000 this year to get a city license for a liquor store.

•        Tom Zbikowski, the Notre Dame football safety recently drafted by the Baltimore Ravens. He has three agents: former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., Michael Joyce, whose father is a close political adviser to the mayor, and Vanecko.

"Mark,'' said Zbikowski's father Ed, "he's like family.''

Contributing: Jim DeRogatis

Age: 33
Home: His parents' Sauganash house
Occupation: Consultant with Cardinal Growth Entertainment -- founded by Mayor Daley's friend Robert Bobb -- to invest in movies made by former Sun-Times owner Ted Field.
Marital status: Single

Age: 31
Home: Lake View apartment
Occupation: Registered nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where her father is a thoracic surgeon.
Marital status: Single