Pioneer Bank Redevelopment in Humboldt Park Stalls Again After Lender Pulls Out

The redevelopment of the long-vacant Pioneer Trust & Savings Bank building in Humboldt Park has stalled again after a lender that had agreed to finance the project pulled out, leaving the owners searching for new money nearly two years after the property fell into foreclosure.

The landmarked building at 4000 W. North Ave. went into foreclosure after its owners defaulted on a loan agreement with a Jefferson Park development company, according to court documents. The owners failed to pay the initial $1 million installment on a $3 million mortgage loan before the July 31, 2023 deadline, triggering a legal fight that has dragged on for nearly two years. The lawsuit also accused the owners of failing to pay real estate taxes, fees, maintenance insurance and other assessments, allegations the owners have denied.

Owners Luis Puig and Juan Gabriel Moreno, co-founder of JGMA Architects, along with former owner Matt Mosher and their contractors, have been trying to line up financing since the foreclosure suit was filed, according to Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th). A recent lender walked away from the deal, sending the team back to the search for a new source of cash.

"They are exploring another lender," Fuentes said. She said the project cannot move forward until new financing is in place.

Fuentes had previously hoped construction would begin this spring. That timeline is no longer certain. The owners, their attorneys and the owner of the Jefferson Park lending company did not respond to requests for comment.

This is not the first legal fight tied to the project. In 2023, Hispanic Housing Development Corp., a local development company that had competed to redevelop the bank, sued the owners over alleged mishandling of the city's Invest South/West redevelopment process. That lawsuit was thrown out later that year.

The ownership group, calling itself Team Pioneros, won a city bid in 2021 to convert the 1920s bank building into what officials described as a "center for Latino commerce." Plans call for offices, a community space, a cafe, a library, housing and a health clinic inside the building. Park Row Development, the firm Mosher and Puig founded in 2020, partnered with Moreno and JGMA on the project, which was estimated to cost close to $74 million as of 2023.

A separate annex building at 4008 W. North Ave. is planned to house a community cafe and restaurant, according to city officials. The full project is set to unfold in two phases, with an affordable housing building planned for the second phase on a one-acre parking lot north of the former bank.

BTEC, a workforce training and career center, and Arquitectos, a networking organization for Latino architects, are slated to become ground-floor tenants. JGMA has said it plans to move its own headquarters into the building's upper floors.

The City Council approved $13 million in tax-increment financing for the project in 2023 as part of the Invest South/West program, but a city spokesperson said that money has never been used and a redevelopment agreement has not closed.

The bank building has sat vacant for about 20 years. It was built in 1925, during what city officials described in a 2012 landmark designation report as banking's "golden age," when grand branch buildings were meant to signal to customers that their money was safe and the bank was there to stay. Puerto Rico-based Banco Popular took over the building in the mid-1990s as Humboldt Park's Puerto Rican population grew, operating there until 2008, when it relocated across the street.

The building remains empty while the owners look for a new lender. Fuentes said the search continues, with no closing date set for when new financing might be in place.