Aurora council agrees to delay restaurant at The Mayan

The Aurora City Council has agreed to delay any restaurant development in the former Elks Club building at Stolp Avenue and Benton Street downtown.

Aldermen unanimously approved an amendment to the development agreement between the city and Karademas Management that says for the time being, the developer of what is now known as The Mayan luxury apartments does not need to develop a restaurant in the first floor of the building.

The original agreement between the city and Karademas called for Karademas to remodel the historic building into apartments, and to include a restaurant as part of the renovation. The city, which had taken ownership of the historic building, gave Karademas ownership of the building for $1.

In return, Karademas put up a $500,000 performance bond as assurance he would complete the project.

The apartments have been remodeled, and 26 of the 29 units currently are occupied.

As he has been working on the project, Karademas has said there was no interest from a restaurateur for the space. At one point, Karademas intended to develop the restaurant himself.

The agreement gave a September deadline by which to have the restaurant open, which was clearly not going to happen, city officials said.

This week, city development officials told aldermen that the first floor of the building, which was to have been the restaurant space, has been secured and isolated by security features from the rest of the building.

John Curley, building and permits director, said that the city issued an occupancy permit for the upper floors because they were ready, but did not for the first floor.

Karademas has drawn down on most of the $500,000 bond. But he told the city he wanted to hold off on the restaurant development at The Mayan to concentrate on more development at one of his other holdings, Leland Tower, further north on Stolp Avenue. Karademas also owns the Graham Building just across Millennium Park from the Leland.

At first Karademas said he wanted to put the $66,000 left in the bond into restaurant development at the Leland, but he now says he is abandoning his restaurant plans there and wants to develop loft-style apartments into the second floor of the Leland — once the site of the former hotel's ballroom — and put the money left in the bond toward that.

City officials this week agreed that Karademas has spent about $4.7 million on The Mayan, and was only obligated to spend $2.4 million.

"He supplied proof that the work was done, the bills were paid," said Bill Wiet, the city's chief development officer.

Wiet recommended Karademas be allowed to spend the rest of the $66,000 as he sees fit, on either the first floor or basement of The Mayan, or at the Leland.

"It's not going back in his pocket," Wiet said. "It's going into more improvements downtown."

Aldermen ended up agreeing that Karademas has been a boon to downtown Aurora, investing a lot of his own money there. Ald. Judd Lofchie, 10th Ward, pointed out Karademas "has spent $15 million to $16 million on property in downtown Aurora."

Ald. Sherman Jenkins, at large, pointed out that Karademas did not say he will never do anything at The Mayan.

"Be patient, have faith in him," Jenkins said.

"This developer should be able to spend as he sees fit," said Ald. Tina Bohman, 1st Ward.

slord@tribpub.com