City's Park Grill Suit Could Hit Emanuel Chief of Staff's Wallet

By Chris Bentley in News on Jan 9, 2012 5:30PM

Image Credit: Matt Maldre

The clout-heavy, Daley-era deal that locked in sub-market-rate rent and other perks for the management of Park Grill restaurant has ties to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, as well. Emanuel’s chief of staff, Theresa E. Mintle, invested in Park Grill when it opened in November 2003, the Sun-Times reported.

Mintle, who sold her ownership stake to her husband three days after Emanuel took office, nonetheless finds herself in an awkward situation. A cousin of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, she and her husband Michael Toolis were two of more than 100 investors who put up money to open the restaurant.

The city filed a lawsuit in December that jeopardizes an offer from Levy Premium Foodservice L.P. to buy out Park Grill investors to the tune of $4.9 million.

Park Grill countersued the city to defend the terms of their lease agreement, which includes free water, gas and garbage pickups for the $12-million per year operation.

Emanuel’s staff told the Sun-Times that Mintle has no financial interest in Park Grill and say she has had no involvement in the city’s ongoing legal battle with the restaurant’s owners. But as the Sun-Times recounts, Mintle’s is just one of many close ties between Park Grill’s controversial city deal and clout-heavy Chicago officials:

She’s one of several prominent people who invested in Park Grill with close ties to Daley. The others include trucking magnate Fred Barbara; Pat Degnan, the brother of longtime Daley political adviser Tim Degnan; and janitorial business kingpin Richard Simon, who lived next door to Daley.

The Park Grill deal to operate in Millennium Park has been a subject of controversy since February 2005, when the Sun-Times revealed that a Chicago Park District official became pregnant with O’Malley’s child during the time the 20-year concession agreement was being negotiated — a point that’s raised in the Emanuel administration’s lawsuit.

The Park District receives 5 percent of Park Grill’s revenues — $2.2 million so far that Park Grill’s countersuit seeks in damages if the court buys City Hall’s argument that the district had no authority to sign the deal in the first place.