Condo board tried to discourage owner from renting to Gary Kimmel

5-Jun-13 – His debt to society may have been paid but Gary Kimmel was not going to be allowed to return home to Marina City if the condo board there had any say in the matter.

While publicly declaring no legal remedies available to keep the convicted money launderer from renting at Marina City, the former attorney for Marina Towers Condominium Association tried to persuade a unit owner from renting to Kimmel.

(Above) Kimmel and his wife, Monalisa, in an undated photo.

Kimmel was a former dentist, unit owner at Marina City, and at one time was on the condo association’s board of directors. He served 17 months in federal prisons after pleading guilty in 2008 to federal charges of money laundering.

December 3, 2010, was Kimmel’s last day at the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center, a “halfway house” on the Near West Side of Chicago. It was also the day MTCA attorney Daniel Meyer wrote to William Balcerzak, a computer consultant who served on the condo board from 2008 to 2012.

Knowing that Balcerzak wanted to rent to Kimmel a two-bedroom east tower unit that Kimmel used to own until selling in 2005, Meyer urged Balcerzak to “consider this course of action very carefully.”

“The association has already received a strong negative reaction from the unit owners and tenants should Mr. Kimmel reoccupy a unit in the building,” wrote Meyer (right).

“The association takes no responsibility for the conduct of any unit owner or tenant with respect to Mr. Kimmel’s reoccupation of a unit, including yours.”

Kimmel used to own three combined units until he fell behind on assessments and possession of the units was awarded in 2009 to the condo association, which then found tenants who paid rent to MTCA. Meyer warned Balcerzak that if there was any monetary harm to the association as a result of Kimmel living there, such as the tenants of his former units moving out “as a result of harassment,” the association would look to Balcerzak for remuneration “to the fullest extent permitted by the Condominium Property Act, the association’s governing documents, and any other source of remedy.”

Meyer also warned Balcerzak that media outlets were “not likely to allow Mr. Kimmel’s discharge pass without comment” and might publish his place of residence.

Ten days later, Meyer told a tamer version of the situation to the MTCA board of directors that had asked him for a written legal opinion about whether Kimmel could be prevented from residing at Marina City. In a letter dated December 13, 2010, Meyer told the condo board it does not possess means to prevent Kimmel from occupying any unit at Marina City other than the three units of which the association had been awarded possession.

Kimmel’s conviction on money laundering charges, wrote Meyer, “is not, in our opinion, sufficient to render his presence on the common elements noxious, offensive, or disturbing.”

David Gantt (left), who at the time was the residential property manager, was not sympathetic, either. Three days after Meyer’s first letter was sent, he told Balcerzak in an email, “I think that Mr. Meyer’s letter covered all of the detail of potential liabilities. Sometimes a good business decision trumps a decision made out of compassion. The last I checked the Lawson YMCA charged $450 per month.”

It is believed that Kimmel currently resides in the Philippines with his wife and three children.

 Marina City history: Shoeboxes full of money