Nick Karounos wants to make it clear he’s the lead in a band of Chicago music festival influencers turned real estate investors.
The co-owner of some of the Windy City’s most popular nightclubs and live event venues is suing entertainment mogul Lucas King, who is responsible for Carunos’ PRYSM club near Goose Island and Concord Music in Logan Square. One of the partners of the hall and other properties.
Karounos alleges that King failed to keep up with the additional investment required to hold a property at 1719 South Clinton Street, a six-story office building in the East Pilsen area that houses recording studios and other businesses, as well as a 15,000-square-foot of vacant space and space for lease.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County court last month, reveals that the club’s co-owners have feuded in recent years over other properties they jointly own and operate. As well as co-owning PRYSM’s real estate at 1543 North Kingsbury Street, they also co-operated The Mid dance music venue at Fulton Market before it closed in 2019. The property was redeveloped into the 18-story 800 Fulton office building Raytheon Stock.
Their dispute began in 2019 when they restructured ownership interests in several properties they jointly owned through a private exchange of shares, according to the Karounos’ court filings, and so have remained largely unreported.
However, since those exchanges, “animosity between King and Karounos has increased and culminated in multiple lawsuits between King and Karounos concerning the management and operation of their business,” the lawsuit says.
Neither Kim nor his attorney responded to a request for comment, nor did Carunos or his attorney. A person investigating PRYSM responded to a request for comment by text message from the men, each of whom has a stake in the club’s assets, although King’s name appears on record at the property.
In fact, a years-long lawsuit in Cook County court involved two men suing each other over various ownership interests in several properties across the city, including the Concord Music Hall at Logan Square at 2051 North Milwaukee Avenue and the former nightclub Koncrete in North Egypt. 1675 Elston Ave. The latter was closed in 2015 after a fight broke out on the grounds, and a 21-year-old woman was shot dead when the fight spread outside the building.
Karounos accused Kim of refusing to engage in business since 2019. He asked the judge to remove King from the members of the LLC that controlled the Clinton Street property.
Kim, however, is pursuing his own legal action against Carunos. King filed suit against Karounos last year because Karounos Corporation controlled and leased the Concord Music Hall property in Logan Square, which is jointly controlled by King and Karounos, from the property’s owning entity.
King said his partner at the property delayed getting a liquor license for almost a year starting in 2019 so the Karounos wouldn’t have to immediately start paying more than $15,000 in monthly rent.
King claims that Karounos and another investor in the property attempted to improperly remove King from the Logan Square landlord entity and “[froze] not involved in the day-to-day affairs of the company,” the lawsuit said.
Karounos responded to King’s lawsuit and has denied wrongdoing in the most serious claims brought against him. Their dispute over the former Koncrete property in Bucktown is currently being resolved in arbitration, public records show.
Other cases are still pending in Cook County court.
