Investors choose to keep interests private
By Vicky Wedig
Editor
Nearly two years after buying Lake Lawn Resort, the owners – touted at the time of the resort’s purchase as “a group of local investors” – have not revealed their identities.
The front man on the 2011 purchase and the only owner identified at that time – Jim Drescher, of Lake Geneva – sold his interest in the resort nearly a year ago. Kunes Country Auto Group Owner Gregg Kunes, of Fontana, is a known owner, and Michael Pokel, of Cedarburg, formerly of Darien, is a reported owner, but the rest remain under the radar.
Lake Geneva attorney David C. Williams, who is representing Lake Lawn condominium owners in a lawsuit against resort owners, said he doesn’t even know who he is suing.
“I have asked that, and so far they have refused to answer,” he said. “So I guess we’ll have to go to court to find out who they are. They made it pretty clear they’re not going to tell us that without a fight.
“It’s rather unusual in my experience where we sued somebody and they refused to say who they are.”
Williams said he is aware that Kunes is an owner, and Kunes is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit.
“Mr. Kunes has an interest,” Williams said. “But he refuses to say how much interest or the nature of his interest.”
Williams said he has heard “on good authority” that the Ricketts family, who own the Chicago Cubs, have interest in the resort, but local sources debunked that notion.
The legal owner of the resort is Delavan Lake Lawn LLC, which is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit under Drescher’s Lake Geneva address. Drescher said his address is listed for the ownership because he was the agent of the limited liability corporation at the time the suit was filed. Delavan attorney Dale Thorpe is now the registered agent for the LLC.
Thorpe said he has no interest or ownership in the property and is strictly the owners’ legal counsel – a typical agent for an LLC. Both Thorpe and Drescher declined to reveal the owners, calling the matter private.
“That’s always been a private matter,” said Drescher.
Drescher, who runs the WC Food Pantry in the Town of Geneva, said he got out of the resort in January when one of the other partners offered to buy his share. He said he doesn’t know who the current owners are but said revealing their identities is their choice.
“It’s not anybody’s secret,” he said. “It’s not private information. It’s just that they chose they didn’t want their names mentioned.”
Drescher said the owners can be found on public records but couldn’t say what records. Land and tax records list the owner as Delavan Lake Lawn LLC. Drescher said the owners are local people or people with seasonal homes in the area who wanted to save the resort but are not looking for notoriety or glory.
“It was done as something that was good for the community,” he said. “It’s not a profit-making opportunity. It takes years and years to turn a resort around like that.”
Drescher gathered a group of seven people to buy the resort outright in early 2011 from Anchor Bank. The bank had foreclosed upon the resort, bought it at a sheriff’s auction in October 2010 and closed it in December of that year.
He said he believes the city should have stepped up to the plate to save the tradition-rich property and one its largest employers. Lake Lawn is the city’s second largest employer with 425 workers behind Pentair, which has 807 employees.
But, he said, when nothing was happening with the resort and it remained closed into the spring of 2011, he believed something had to be done.
“That’s why I stepped up to the plate,” he said. “Sometimes I get ‘tapped on the shoulder’ to do certain things. It was too good of an asset to let go to hell in a hand basket.”
Drescher said if the investors were merely seeking profit, they could have closed the resort, demolished it and sold the prime lakefront property for $55 million for single-family homes.
Kunes did not return a phone call seeking comment, and Lake Lawn General Manager Dave Sekeres could not be reached for comment.
