Almuttan Family Has Ties to Eyesore Pine Lawn Property

To call it an eyesore would be an understatement.

For years Pine Lawn Alderwoman Dionne Jones has been trying to do something about the pile of charred rubble at Dardanella and Kienlen avenues, but it’s a task made all the harder because she can’t get a straight answer about who owns the property.

"You have [neighbors] who are ashamed to invite friends over," she says. “Like even though your house is nice, your friends have to bypass this to get to your house. It's embarrassing."

There was once an auto body shop here, but for years there has been no discernible business. A few years ago, a fire reduced the building to the pile of debris it is now.

Property records indicate that the lot is owned by ISYM ENTERPRISES, an LLC which according to state records was incorporated in 2015 by Rami Almuttan.

Almuttan was sentenced to four years in prison in October on a conspiracy charge stemming from his role in a cigarette and synthetic marijuana trafficking scheme. He is currently free pending appeal. Rami is the brother of Mohammed Almuttan, the businessman who, after a 2017 arrest for his role in the trafficking scheme, became a federal informant and went on to record two former aldermen and the former president of the Board of Aldermen soliciting bribes.

On the phone, Rami Almuttan says the property actually belongs to his uncle.

“It’s not mine,” he says. “At one time my family was going to buy it, and they did it under my name. … But I thought it was off my name.”

Rami gave the RFT the number for his cousin, Ali Jon, who says he's the manager of the property. He says he's not allowed to say who the owner is. "I have to ask them first," he says.

Jon says that he thinks the building caught fire about two or three years ago, and as far he knows, the owner is trying to sell it.

"We have a couple buyers. We're just waiting for them in the process of getting funds," Ali Jon says.

Jones, who has a view of the mess from her backyard, says she first ran for alderwoman in 2021, intent to fix quality of life issues in Pine Lawn just like this one. But she's finding this particular issue more difficult than she imagined.

Across from the property on Dardanella is a row of modest but well-kept homes and across the street on Kienlen is the iconic Skate King, which for more than 50 years has drawn people from all over the region for a night out. The rubble sticks out like a sore thumb.

Jones has floated the idea of a nearby church buying the property to use as a parking lot, but if any deal is in the works, it seems to be progressing slowly.

Jones describes it this way: “It’s tied up in foolishness.”

"It's an eyesore,” she says. “It's very sad. It makes us angry.”

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