DR. GREGORY L. PRIMUS, owner of the Chicago Center for Sports and Orthopedic Surgery and a former Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos football star, is fighting being illegally evicted by Blue Star Properties to save his Hyde Park medical complex. He says property owners have breached their contract to repair the roof and other parts of the complex requiring attention due to flooding and mold. (Photos by Chinta Strausberg)
Fights eviction of Hyde Park Sports/Medical Center
Once a player with the Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos, Dr. Gregory L. Primus, owner of the Chicago Center for Sports and Orthopedic Surgery (CSO) in the Hyde Park area, is being evicted from the building housing his facility.
Primus is battling with Blue Star Properties, and the ownership of the property, 1301 East, LLC. He contends these entities are evicting him illegally. According to Primus, these entities breached their obligations in the lease to provide “a safe environment for their business, and in particular make roof repairs to prevent recurrent water leaks and damage.”
Located at 1301 E. 47th St., a block from Lake Shore Drive, the facility is in the Hyde Park/Kenwood communities and is home to a number of non-violence youth programs, teams, schools, and youth sport organizations like 360 Volleyball Academy, one of the nation’s largest minority inner city girls’ programs. Primus said these programs are run by coaches, trainers and mentors whose programs are now without a home.
Primus made major repairs to the sports complex including making it ADA compliant, which it had not been for years. Primus said he has spent well over one million dollars in renovations “to make this one of the first inner city sports complexes in the country.”
Primus, an orthopedic sports medicine surgeon and the master tenant of the property, also sought to expand medical access to the community by bringing in other specialties, such as podiatry, chiropractic medicine, pain management, neurology, primary care, gastroenterology, interventional radiology, physical therapy, mental health services and Urgent Care.
This historic partnership, Primus said, has helped to facilitate the creation of one of the first Black-owned inner city Urgent Care facilities in the nation, serving primarily a Black and brown population.
Primus also said that the CSO Medical Center is one of the few multi-specialty, free-standing private clinics staffed by minority or underrepresented doctors with a focus on serving their communities.
Explaining further, Primus said this kind of staffing is important to him because he believes the “number one factor in reducing health care disparities is having doctors that represent the community serving the community.”
Primus signed the lease in December of 2017 to acquire the old Hyde Park Tennis Club, which he said was “in decrepit condition.” He amended the lease in early 2018 to add the additional space of the Advocate Medical Center after it closed its Hyde Park/Kenwood clinic.
Having spent time at the Advocate Medical Center before taking possession of the complex, Primus had heard rumblings about a leaky roof, but, according to Dr. Primus, the leaking roof and water intrusions were not disclosed to him by the landlord.
For that reason, Primus demanded “a watertight” roof before the lease was signed and moving into the facility. “This was agreed to, and roof repairs were supposed to be completed and documented prior to our taking possession of the property,” said Primus.
After moving into the building in mid-December, on January 25, 2018, he found there was water leaking in the building and “significant water intrusion issues related to the foundation of the building along with elevated moisture levels.”
After over 1,000 email exchanges with the landlord regarding recurrent water leaks and flooding, Primus said water continues to come into the facility at an alarming rate, both through the roof and through the foundations of the building.
Primus, along with his tenants and supporters, says the eviction by Blue Star Properties is illegal because promises were made in writing to repair the building’s leaky roof and remediate many internal damages due to recent flooding.
According to Primus, the “patch work” alleged to have been performed by the landlord has repeatedly failed to keep water out of the CSO Sports Medicine complex.
He said patients have already had some slip and fall injuries and some complained of mold. Fearing more injury or illness, Primus said he was forced to vacate the sports facility and close the CSO Sports Multiplex portion of the building.
“We want to stay there, but we can’t stop the rain from coming into the building,” he said. “We want to see patients and run our sports and health organizations.”
“If we are evicted, the entire CSO Sports and Medical Multiplex will be closed, leaving hundreds of mostly African Americans without a facility for medically supervised services and Urgent Care, along with the schools and youth organizations that relied on CSO for a “safe haven, and a place to train, practice, play, and receive mentorship,” Primus told the Chicago Crusader.
“Instead of honoring their written commitment to provide a water-tight seal on the roof, when we were forced to close the sports center and vacate that portion of the building due to recurrent water leaks, property managers used that as an excuse to evict us,” Primus stated.
Saying this illegal eviction is not just about him, Primus said, “We house one of the largest minority Volleyball Travel programs in the country, 360 Volleyball Academy, and one of the most established basketball youth programs, NBU. They do not have a home right now because of the closing. They will no longer have a gym.”
The CSO Sports Multiplex has also been a place that focuses on gun violence prevention and anti-bullying. Non-profit organizations such as POP (Project Outreach and Prevention) and local police-affiliated programs have successfully kept kids off the streets and engaging in healthier activities, utilizing the CSO facility for events and activities.
“Reverend Jesse Jackson came to our facility this summer to witness one of the wonderful programs that utilized the CSO Sports Multiplex.”
Primus was referring to One City, a men-at-risk program through the Noah’s Arc Foundation, where he said former Chicago Bull Joakim Noah “is doing wonderful things in this space of anti-violence and incarceration.”
“Blue Star Properties used the closing of that portion of the building as an excuse to seek an eviction of the entire building,” said Primus. However, he made it clear that, “They had a right to close that portion of the building for safety purposes.”
Explaining, Primus said, “We regret having to shut down and close because of all the wonderful and constructive things we’re doing at the facility, but being a physician and understanding risk and safety issues, especially issues that we could not control as the tenant, we had no choice.”
If they are evicted Primus said, “This Medical Center built on the South Side of Chicago, designed to provide care for the local community, ends. If that happens, we will have even more limited access to orthopedic surgery, women’s health, therapy, mental health services, and all the medical specialties that enjoy taking care of patients there and will end access to the much-needed Urgent Care Clinic as well.
“Everything we’ve built over there would no longer exist. They are now suing to evict us from the entire building, including the CSO Sports Multiplex, the Planet Fitness and the CSO Medical Center.”
“We will fight this illegal eviction for the sake of hundreds of young and older people who use our facility for fitness and health-related purposes,” vowed Primus, who has a passion for his medical profession and an equal one for providing services to Black and brown patients and the hundreds of students he and several tenants mentor year round at the CSO Multiplex.
Opening the CSO Sports and Medical Multiplex has fulfilled his dream of providing services for Black and brown patients. That dream has now been shattered, primarily due to “how this property has been managed and the unsafe conditions they have had to deal with for years,” Primus said.
Repeated calls and emails to Craig Golden, owner of Blue Star and co-owner of the property; Scott Goldman, co-owner of the property; Tyler Quast, COO, Blue Star Properties and A. Skalla, were not returned for several days before Chicago Crusader deadline.
