myVerona Sells for $850K to Cedar Falls Restaurateur

Russell Wasendorf Sr.'s once-popular downtown restaurant myVerona has been sold.

Tony Tomlyanovich, the owner of Tony's LaPizzeria, bought the 419 Main Street building in an online auction Feb. 25. He paid $850,000.

Wasendorf, 63, is serving 55 years in prison for embezzling over $200 million while he was CEO of Cedar Falls-based brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group, also known as PFG.

He opened myVerona as a lure for his Chicago employees when he relocated PFG to Cedar Falls from Chicago in 2009. But when he was jailed after attempting suicide outside PFG's headquarters in July, the Italian eatery was shuttered, leaving its staff of around 70 people jobless.

Tony's LaPizzeria sits on the same block as myVerona. Managers at Tony's did not immediately return calls asking for comment Thursday about plans for the space. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported the restaurateur was still deciding what to put in the myVerona building, which measures around 10,000 square feet.

What do you think Tomylanovich should do with the myVerona space? Tell us in the comments.

Real estate agent Frank Miehe Jr. handled the sale. He said Tomylanovich bid against another unnamed party which initially bid $675,000. The two then participated in the Feb. 25 auction to see who would purchase the building. The property's initial asking price was $995,000.

The money will go toward attempts to reimburse, at least in part, Wasendorf's thousands of victims.

"I thought the process went really well," Miehe said. "It worked well for the receiver to help all those people that have been effected by Wasendorf financially. We got a fair price for that building."