Elgin entrepreneur moving into former Smooth Fox building

Elgin entrepreneur Kevin Echevarria is expanding his business into the downtown building that used to house the now-closed Smooth Fox bar.

Echevarria, CEO of PKE Enterprises Inc. said he signed a deal last week with LV Management with a commitment to buy within seven years the three-story building at 51 S. Grove Ave. Smooth Fox was there until it lost its liquor license and shut down in May.

“Every time it went on the market ... I've been in the building, but I never submitted a proposal because we were so far off on the numbers,” Echevarria said. “This time around, we negotiated a deal that made sense.”

Echevarria said his business Local-Vore at 11 Douglas Ave., also in downtown Elgin, will expand to the South Grove Avenue building, which is 22,000 square feet including the basement.

Local-Vore provides space and marketing for pop-up events so budding restaurateurs to test their cuisine and business model. The new building will provide additional space for that and more programs, such as events for nonprofits to be catered by clients of Shared Dream Kitchen, also part of PKE Enterprises. Echevarria said he plans to apply for a liquor license.

The painting event company Brushed Chicago, now at the Douglas Avenue building, also is planning to move into the South Grove Avenue building, said co-owner Sandi Brown of Elgin. “We are excited because Kevin has this great synergy,” she said. “We want to bring excitement to downtown Elgin.”

PKE Enterprises recently was selected by Kane County to operate a new food hub program — a place for local farmers to deliver their products to be distributed to local consumers including restaurants and school districts — so the new Elgin building could hold farm-to-table pop-ups, Echevarria said. He said he's negotiating the food hub agreement with county officials who declined to comment until approval.

The building on South Grove Avenue is owned by Victor Lipukhin/LV Management Inc., county records show.

Lipukhin, a Russian citizen, was indicted in 2014 on federal charges, including filing false tax returns and failing to report millions of dollars in bank accounts in Switzerland, court documents show. The case is pending, and Lipukhin is considered a fugitive, said Nicole Navas Oxman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to the indictment, Lipukhin lived in St. Charles from at least 2001 through mid-2007 and served as president of a subsidiary of AO Severstal, the largest steel producer in Russia. He used fictitious mortgages to conceal his purchases of real estate, including a building at 18 N. Fourth St., in St. Charles, documents show.

Echevarria said he has had email contact with Lipukhin, who is in Russia, while dealing with LV Management, whose attorney Robert Smith declined to comment.

“As of right now, we feel confident that everything going into the property is above board,” Echevarria said. “Whatever is going on with his personal stuff in relation with what he has pending with the Department of Justice is further confirmation that this asset in downtown Elgin should be in local hands.”