Wanna buy a purple dinosaur?

[the_archfiend]

No, not that one. He was taken out and shot by Smurfs wearing Space 1999 uniforms or something. I mean the Purple Hotel, and...

Oops. Too late.

As stated in the LoopNet notice, sealed bids were being "accepted from now (whenever 'now' was; the place has been closed from January 2007, after all) until June 15, 2011". So perhaps someone has snapped it up. Or maybe not:

A Cook County judge signed a consent order letting Lincolnwood authorities tear down the building as of Aug. 1 unless the owner fixes 31 code violations, some involving mold and rodent infestations and asbestos hazards. Attorney Steven Elrod, representing Lincolnwood, said he hopes the court order will spur a sale of the property.

The hotel at 4500 W. Touhy is owned by Village Resorts Inc., which is controlled by Donald Bae. A real estate firm has been trying to sell the 8.5-acre site for an asking price of $25.8 million.

Bae and his attorney could not be reached for comment.

Now, this Sun-Times piece is dated July 18th, but it's not like this David Roeder-penned article is all that different than the Benjamin Legal Services blurb here, the Curbed Chicago piece here, the Skokie Patch piece here or the Pat Krochmal article for the Sun-Times' Pioneer Press wing here. They're all bad news for Donald Bae, since the majority of them list a August 1st expiration date on the fungus-infested wreck that used to host Capricon back in the 80's and early 90's and hosted Reactor (among others) as late as 2005 and 2006. It's just astounding to me that Bae (who's apparently owned the place since 1993 or so) chooses to hold on to a disused, rotting hotel that he has neither the will to sell or the stomach to renovate. He's already been fined multiple times and will be dinged for the cost of litigation with the village of Lincolnwood when this weird little saga comes to a close, so why not cut your losses? 

Anybody who wants to take a stab at explaining this can contact me through the usual means on my LJ page unless you're getting just as bored with the answer as I am. Granted, I used to have a soft spot for this hotel since I attended my first legitimate, fan-run SF convention (Capricon 5) in 1985. Now, it's just begging to be put out of its misery.