The Chicagoist will be launching later but in the meantime please enjoy our archives.

R. Kelly Trapped in a Foreclosure Suit

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 12, 2011 10:40PM

2011_07_12_rkelly.jpg Looks like the real estate market was the wrong investment for a lot of people. Take, for instance, self-styled Pied Piper and noted water sports enthusiast R. Kelly.

Kells' new "Dilemma" is a $2.9 million foreclosure lawsuit on his 11,600 square-foot Olympia Fields mansion. (Bet there are a lot of closets in that mansion.) Chicago Real Estate Daily says it's "a vivid reminder of the steep decline in residential property values."

Maybe so. But the foreclosure lawsuit came about because "The Greatest" failed to pay his mortgage for over a year in an attempt to force a loan modification. Evidently Kelly doesn't listen to AM radio or he could have talked to David Hochberg at Townstone Financial. As Curbed Chicago points out, Kelly's run afoul of folks ever since he built his "Chocolate Factory" five years ago. Olympia Fields sued him for keeping tour buses and and dogs on the property like a "Rock Star." A guardhouse he had built on "Down Low" on the property later had to be torn down.

Kelly hasn't lived in the mansion in over a year.