Park Grill Owners Looking to Sell

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 25, 2011 2:00PM

The owners of Park Grill in Millennium Park have a sweetheart deal with the Park District — a concession arrangement $275,000 and 4 percent of their gross receipts that frees them from paying gas, water, garbage, and property tax bills, with taxpayers footing the bill for half of the restaurant's construction costs. So why are they looking at getting out of the restaurant business now?

Park Grill's owners are looking to sell, according to the Sun-Times, now that the Illinois Supreme Court found in their favor in the contentious property tax suit brought on by former Assessor Jim Houlihan. Park Grill's owners Matthew O'Malley and Fred Bruno Barbara aren't talking, but they must think the time is right to get out of the taxpayer-subsidized restaurant business while the getting is good (we're also guessing that with friend of Barbara Richard Daley's tenure as Mayor set to end soon, they may not have the friends in high places they once did).

Let's hope that any buyers that are lined up don't get the deal O'Malley and his partners received.