Along storied Maxwell Street, where shopkeepers for decades drew customers eager for a deal and ready to bargain, the University of Illinois Chicago now leases space to Hashbrowns Cafe, a breakfast joint whose owners have big political connections — and seven years of unpaid real estate tax bills topping $114,000, plus interest.
Around the corner, Barbara’s Bookstore moved out of another university-owned storefront a decade ago. Cook County records show Barbara’s owes more than $980,000 in property taxes — more than $550,000 of that for the years after it moved out.
