The Chicago developer that owns the Hilldale Shopping Center — which is now in foreclosure — has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the UW Foundation to avoid a trial that was to have begun next week.
Under the settlement with the foundation, the Hilldale Land Co., Joseph Freed and Associates President Larry Freed and FH Stock Holdings agreed to pay the foundation just under $5.4 million to settle the case. An additional earlier judgment for just over $1.7 million against Freed's brother, Daniel Freed, has yet to be finalized.
The foundation, which built and developed the mall, filed the lawsuit against Hilldale and Freed in August 2010, alleging that not only had it stopped paying its obligations under purchase documents for the mall in 2004, but that one of the signatures on documents was forged.
Freed bought the foundation's stock in the mall with promissory notes totaling $6 million. But a signer of one of the notes, Freed's sister, Debra Ruderman, told the foundation that she never signed the note and that her signature was a forgery.
That issue has not been publicly settled.
"The claims have been settled, and a confidential settlement has been reached," foundation lawyer H. Dale Peterson said when asked about the issue.
State Department of Justice spokeswoman Dana Brueck said Friday that DOJ still has an open investigation under way on the issue and could not comment further on it.
Hilldale is in foreclosure after its owners defaulted on bank loans of $50 million and $12.6 million and faces a sheriff's sale, which has not been scheduled.
