Brooklyn investor Shaya Wurzberger, head of Levav Properties, says a New York lender pulled a fast one on him in a multimillion-dollar South Side apartment deal. In Cook County court filings, he claims lender Roc360 quietly attached a personal guarantee to an $11.8 million loan covering a 14-building portfolio, using a signature page he had signed in advance. Wurzberger says he signed a blank page before the February 2024 closing, never saw the final commercial guarantee, and now faces the prospect of paying to fix any default instead of simply letting the lender take the buildings.
According to The Real Deal, Wurzberger's filing says the guarantee "puts Wurzberger on the hook to pay out of pocket to cure any default by the Levav affiliate" and alleges that Roc360 attached the agreement to a previously supplied signature page without giving him a chance to review it. The filing also says Wurzberger was not at the February 2024 closing and that his attorney, Kathleen Robson, signed a blank signature page that the lender's title agent later connected to the commercial guarantee. The Real Deal reports that Roc360 is now pursuing the personal guarantee instead of taking an offer to surrender the properties, and that no hearing date has been set.
Roc360 And The Lender's Playbook
According to Roc360, the company runs a vertically integrated platform focused on investor loans and has grown through acquisitions and securitizations. That nationwide scope has turned Roc360 into a regular player in investor foreclosures across the country and gives it the staffing and servicing firepower to press complicated claims such as personal guarantees. When disputes boil down to closing packages and signature pages, those operational muscles can help decide whether a lender successfully enforces a guarantee or instead settles for the collateral.
Properties And The Stakes For Tenants
The disputed loan is tied to a 14-building package of about 128 units, with filings naming some of the largest addresses as 1527 W. 78th St., 7905 S. Champlain Ave. and 11107 S. Emerald Ave. Levav has reportedly offered to hand the buildings over to Roc360, but the lender is pressing the personal guarantee instead, a move that would require Wurzberger to cover any shortfall rather than allow Roc360 to foreclose and take title. The fight comes as Wurzberger is also marketing a separate 22-building, 311-unit portfolio and dealing with earlier housing-code and voucher-program issues, according to The Real Deal.
Market Context And Fallout
Foreclosure activity on Chicago's South Side has stayed elevated in recent years, especially in neighborhoods such as South Shore where cumulative filings remain high, according to the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University. When lenders pursue personal guarantees instead of accepting property surrender, ownership can change quickly and tenants can be caught in the middle, dealing with service disruptions, deferred upkeep or rapid turnover as new landlords take over. Community groups caution that those ripple effects can fuel blight and strain local resources, turning cases like this into neighborhood stories as much as financial ones.
What Happens Next
Wurzberger's lawsuit accuses Roc360 of fraud tied to the personal guarantee and asks the court to block any attempt to enforce it; a judge has not yet scheduled a hearing to decide whether the guarantee is valid. If Roc360 prevails, Wurzberger could be on the hook for millions to cure any defaults. If the court decides the guarantee was improperly created, Roc360 may instead move to foreclose on the buildings. Both sides have declined to comment to reporters, and the outcome will hinge on whether the judge buys Wurzberger's claim that he never agreed to the commercial guarantee in the first place.
