The 234 Apartment

As you do more banking by smartphone, that bank branch you used to visit may soon turn into a restaurant, a day care center or even a condo tower. After a branch building boom a decade or so ago, banks are closing offices by the thousands as more of their customers bank online . They're leaving behind space ready to be transformed into something else, whether an urban storefront or a free- standing brick building with a drive-thru in the suburbs. "If the real estate is strong, any number of things can happen to the property," says Kim McGuire, senior vice president in the Chicago office of CBRE. It's a problem or an opportunity, depending on your perspective, that will be here for a while. Banks operate about 89,300 branches in the United States today , down 8 percent over the past decade, according to Chicago- based real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle . JLL expects an additional 20 percent drop over the next decade. In the Chicago area, the number of branches d...

MORTGAGES Selected mortgages filed with Kent County Register of Deeds SCHONDELMAYER, Chad et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union , Crystal Springs Plat No. 3, Lot 136, $315,875 KIRBY, Catherine J. et al, Quicken Loans, Walker, 2-7-12, $245,600 DAY, Eric G. et al, ChoiceOne Bank, Condo-Knockadoon Condominiums, $316,033 LOWE, Nathan et al, AmeriFirst Financial Corp ., Eastwood Plat, Lot 22, $223,250 KARCZEWSKI, Scott et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union , Grattan Twp., 17-8-9, $274,500 HAGA, Scott et al, Mercantile Bank Of Michigan, Princeton Estates No. 16, Lot 618, $219,600 SCHMIDT, Nancy A. et al, Finance Of America Reverse, Apple Valley Plat No. 3, Lot 31, $324,000 MULLINS, Lawrence H. et al, Independent Bank, Cascade Twp., 20-6-10, $256,410 COXON, Brad et al, ChoiceOne Bank, Solon Twp., 15-10-11, $260,000 3015 DORMAX LLC, Economic Development Foundation , Grand Rapids Gravel Industrial Park No. 2, Lot 37, $225,000 FASSETT, Brennan et al, Quicken Loans, Vergennes Twp., 31-7-9, $368,475 S...

July 10 William Griffin Sr. to Catalina Espinosa Rodriguez , Ld: Lot, on the north side of Barnes Street, $60,800 Brenda Thomas Tharpe to K&G Investments LLC , Ld: Executor’s Deed, Lot 7, Block B Subdivision: Haltom Hills, $80,000 Brenda Thomas Tharpe to K&G Investments LLC , Ld:, Tract A R-50 2362 Executor’s Deed, $20,000 Brantley Chin Yu and Shannon Faye Yu to Good Faith Management LLC , Ld:, 1856 Formosa Drive, Lot 21, Block W Subdivision: F R Miles Section Five, $34,000 Cloreta Marshall and Robert Rhodes to Cloreta Marshall and Brian Marshall , Lot 7, Block B Subdivision: Tara Pines, $54,000 William W. McCartney and Luciann M. McCartney to Paul C. Mann and Sara N. Mann, Lot 4, Block Subdivision: Aumond Tract, $482,500 Roger Alan Barnes, Bobby Lee Barnes and Sandra Kay Phillips to Good Faith Management LLC , Ld: Lots 13 &14, Plat Book 17-D 116, $5,000 Jay W. Foster to Austin T. Cochran, Ld:, Lot 17, Block Subdivision: Bedford Heights Section A, $102,000 Lucille Sul...

Johnson Chrome was a notorious big spender with a taste for bottle service , bespoke suits and $10,000 shoes. The source of his wealth? A sophisticated identity theft scheme that may have conned Torontonians out of millions. The untold story of the city’s most wanted fraudster Photographs: All portraits via Facebook; background by iStock T he fraudster who called himself Johnson Chrome liked to sit on a bench at the intersection of Hazelton and Yorkville, smoking a Montecristo Edmundo robusto and talking about fashion, cars and cigars to anyone who’d listen. He was charming and handsome, with a neatly trimmed beard , a shaved head and perfect teeth. The perch placed him at the centre of the rarefied universe he’d come to inhabit. His condo, in the former Four Seasons hotel, was steps to the west, and he parked his black Jaguar at the Hazelton Hotel opposite . His gym, the sleek Equinox, was a minute’s walk northwest; his preferred cigar shop , La Casa del Habano , was to the sout...