A Cook County judge has hit pause on the sale of a three-unit building at 2643 North California Avenue in Logan Square, granting tenants a 30-day restraining order after they claimed the sellers and their broker skipped steps required under Chicago's tenant right-of-first-refusal law.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Weaver-Boyle ruled in favor of the temporary restraining order request, pausing the pending sale for 30 days, according to The Real Deal. The tenants association at the property claims the sellers and broker Megan Sullivan, a Compass agent, did not follow the procedures required under Chicago's Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, including an allegation that tenants were notified their leases would be terminated and did not receive all the financial information the law requires. The lawsuit names Richard Pooler, Kimmer Olesak, Sullivan and Compass as defendants and does not disclose the identity of the potential buyer, per the outlet's report.
The law at the center of the dispute, often shortened to TOPA, gives renters a right of first refusal to buy their buildings when landlords list properties for sale. It was passed in a section of Chicago northwest of downtown in 2025 and extended to South Shore and Woodlawn earlier in 2026, the report notes. Under the ordinance, tenants can keep their current lease while they decide whether to make an offer, and landlords cannot evict them during that purchase window without just cause.
How the Right-of-First-Refusal Process Is Supposed to Work
The California Avenue property sits within the footprint of Chicago's Block (606) Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Program, which covers designated parts of Logan Square along with Humboldt Park, Avondale and Hermosa. The program is part of the city's Northwest Side Housing Preservation Ordinance, according to Pearson Realty Group. It gives tenants the right of first refusal — the chance to match a buyer's offer before the property can be sold to someone else — and owners in the district must notify tenants before marketing a sale.
From there, tenants get specific windows to express interest, secure financing or partner with qualified buyers, the same source explains, and owners cannot finalize a contract with an outside buyer until those rights have been honored. Owners who skip steps or miss deadlines risk having a sale delayed or invalidated altogether. Landlords are also required to disclose financial information about a property's operating costs and income, disclosures meant to let tenants or a third-party buyer assess whether they could take over a building without sharply raising rents.
Under the city's own rules, an owner accepting a buyer's offer must present each unit with a Third-Party Purchase Offer along with the financial disclosures listed on that document and a copy of the sale, according to the City of Chicago Department of Housing. For buildings with four units or fewer, a tenant, tenant association or assignee must in turn give the owner a financial assurance, such as a pre-approval letter or other financial statement, according to the department's 606 District rules. The available purchase period itself varies depending on the size of the building, with separate tracks for properties of one to two units, three to four units, and five or more units, per a city housing document.
A Second Logan Square Sale Is Also Under Legal Scrutiny
The Real Deal's report notes that the California Avenue case is not the only Logan Square sale facing a legal challenge. A separate lawsuit, brought by attorney Leah Levinger, concerns the pending sale of a rental building at 2471 North Albany Avenue, though a judge has not yet ruled on whether to delay that transaction. The outlet's report describes Weaver-Boyle's order in the California Avenue case as appearing to be the first of its kind in Chicago, though that has not been independently confirmed.
The housing preservation ordinance that created these protections passed in 2024, and the law has drawn pushback from some in the real estate industry, who have criticized it as confusing and difficult to navigate and claimed it stymies investment at a time when housing starts are at record lows, the report states. That friction has reportedly extended to City Hall: two alderpersons who had originally voted in favor of the ordinance later requested that their wards be removed from its coverage area amid pushback from local landlords.
Why Supporters Say the Protections Matter
Proponents of the ordinance counter that it is necessary to prevent rapid rent increases, arguing that new buyers often raise rents quickly after taking over multifamily buildings occupied by long-term tenants who have been paying at or below market rate, according to the same report. That tension between preservation and turnover has already shaped a separate expansion of tenant protections on the South Side.
In April, Chicago renamed what had been the Woodlawn Pilot Program to the Jackson Park Pilot Program, a shift that took effect that same month and created new rights for renters when their building goes up for sale along with longer notice requirements before a tenancy can end, according to Chicago Cityscape. That pilot area, which spans parts of Woodlawn, South Shore and Greater Grand Crossing across Wards 5, 6 and 20, has seen rents climb 43 percent and home values climb 130 percent since 2015, the outlet reported, while more than half of renter households there, 53.2 percent, are considered rent-burdened. Investors have accounted for between 51 and 74 percent of property transactions in that pilot area, according to the same report — figures city officials have pointed to in defending the broader push to slow turnover-driven displacement across Chicago's rental market.
