page_title: Park Grill
section_title: Background of investors
hierarchical_section_title: Park Grill / History / Background of investors
caption_attribution_description: Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley
context_page_description: The Park Grill is the only full-service restaurant included in the multibillion-dollar Millennium Park project in Chicago, Illinois. Its outdoor seating area is the largest al fresco dining area in Chicago. It has placed among the leaders in citywide best-of competitions for best burger and is widely praised for its views.
  The exclusive location, the lucrative contract terms, the investor list, and a close personal relationship between a managing partner of the restaurant and the Chicago Park District's project manager led to a formal ethics investigation, court litigation, and extensive press coverage, and ranked among the most prominent scandals of the administration of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2005. The more than 80 investors include some of Daley's friends and neighbors. One of the most financially successful restaurants in Chicago, the Park Grill remains exempt from property taxes after a multi-year litigation which reached the Illinois Supreme Court.
context_section_description: O'Malley obtained commitments from over 80 prospective Park Grill investors, including some of Mayor Daley's friends and neighbors. Each share of the restaurant cost investors $200,000. Among the investors are Daley's friend Fred Barbara, a nephew of the late Chicago Alderman Fred Roti. Barbara has ties to the Hired Truck Program scandal and the blue bag recycling controversy. Other investors include relatives of Daley's political adviser Timothy Degnan, two neighbors of the mayor, Ray Chin, an O'Hare Airport contractor, and Rick Simon, a controversial figure who runs a janitorial business and sits on the board of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau. Also among the investors was Daley's cousin Theresa E. Mintle, then the Chicago Transit Authority's director of governmental affairs and former congressman Morgan F. Murphy, who has had business dealings with convicted labor union official John Serpico. Among the vendors for Park Grill was an architectural metal company owned by the son of then Chicago Alderman Burton Natarus (42nd).
caption: Many investors are linked to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
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