ATIN- Real estate development and capital investment firm, Maxxam Capital, is leveraging its real estate and NIMBY-busting expertise into a business model. After an epic NIMBY battle near Chicago, Maxxam filed a $68 million lawsuit that resulted in a record $5.5M settlement and the issuance of their zoning and development approvals. Now Maxxam is going national with its expertise, working with addiction treatment operating partners and investors to bust barriers at NIMBY hot spots all over the country.
“This win validates a scalable platform based on our proven zoning expertise. We are ready to partner with other operators in the industry to reactivate failed projects and obtain the zoning and development approvals needed to build a new residential treatment facility,” say Maxxam founders Steven Marco and Adam Glassberg.
“We are committed to making access to residential treatment available to people in all communities. “
At any given time, there are dozens of addiction treatment NIMBY – not-in-my-backyard – fights going on across the nation, and Treatment Magazine has reported on hundreds over the past fifteen years. Along with antiquated Medicaid rules and widespread flouting of state and federal parity laws, NIMBY is among the top impediments to desperately needed access to treatment.
After years-long bruising court battles in state and federal courts, four appeals, and twenty-three zoning and other county board meetings, the partners achieved a sweeping victory. The property is located in the Chicago Metropolitan Area in western suburban Kane County.
Maxxam’s plan was to develop of the 120-acre, 100,000 sq ft campus to provide over 180 treatment beds and a full continuum of care, integrating newly developed technologies like mobile applications that help patients maintain their sobriety.
In addition to the monetary settlement, Maxxam received everything that it desired in terms of land use and other concessions, as well as an unprecedented “Consent Decree” that will have the federal government oversee Kane County’s compliance with the agreement.
In 2017, famed British actor Russell Brand, who is vocal about being in recovery, interviewed Steven Marco in London for ASPIREist, a CNN/HLN Cross-Platform Millennial News Program. They discussed Maxxam’s project and the NIMBY battle. Brand has been a longtime advocate for Maxxam’s cause of making treatment options more accessible.
