Restaurant, sports bar set to open this spring at historic building in downtown Aurora
An entrance flanked with two fountains, a community space with pool tables, a grand porch, a sports bar and a restaurant are planned to debut in April at The Mayan building in downtown Aurora.
Behind the plans are two familiar faces in Aurora — Milwaukee developer David Karademas and Abbey Kemph, the restaurateur behind Leilani Asian Fusion, which closed in 2025 after only a year in business in downtown Aurora.
The project including a sports bar and a revamped Leilani restaurant concept will be on the ground floor of The Mayan, an apartment development that opened in 2016 inside a historic building at 77 Stolp Ave.
The structure, which formerly hosted the Elks Club, is one of three historic buildings Karademas has redeveloped into apartment housing in downtown Aurora.
Karademas, who took a break for awhile from projects in the city, said he’s returned with some urgency for development in Aurora. He sees construction of the $90 million apartment complex along the Fox River, known as the East Bank apartments, as a sign that downtown Aurora is on the cusp of economic expansion.
But he’s worried the East Bank development and any following projects could fail if downtown does not offer more amenities.
“It’s a chicken and egg problem,” said Karademas. “We have a brand new apartment complex coming in downtown … and we do not have the amenities we need for an urban downtown client.”
The planned development on the ground floor of The Mayan is set to have an elaborate entryway and vestibule with an indoor tree, comfortable seating and splashes of gold details throughout. Surrounding that vestibule would be a sports bar with TVs and a game room with pool tables, ping-pong tables and more, said Kemph.
The entryway would lead to a grand dining room in the back of the space, where customers could experience an upscale, revamped version of Leilani Asian Fusion that includes a sushi bar, said Kemph. That dining room would be connected to an outdoor patio area.
Karademas said the project is moving along smoothly, and he has not had issues with health inspections or any other city requirements to get up to code. He also said the city was helpful with plans for the patio, as part of that outdoor property belongs to the city. He said an agreement with the city concerning the patio is moving forward but still needs to be approved by the city council.
He said his hope for the restaurant is that it can offer an experience as nice as the Paramount Theatre does — one that would bring people back to Aurora. He aims to change what he sees as a pattern where people travel into town for a Paramount show then leave right after its over.
“Think about it as an export-import model. When people from Batavia come here to a restaurant, that money stays in Aurora,” he said, noting that “if those people come in and spend their money, we’ve got jobs for cooks and servers and delivery people. So the impact is immeasurable.”
Karademas said that construction of the East Bank apartments is a sign the city is moving in a good direction. The apartment development, between North Broadway and the Fox River downtown and backed by DAC developments, calls for a 343,421-square-foot building with 258 apartments.
The East Bank development’s cost has continued to increase over the years, from about $70 million when it was first discussed in 2021, to $87 million in 2024, and now, the developer’s website lists costs as upward of $90 million.
The Mayan, where the restaurant and sports bar are set to open this spring, already includes 29 apartments. Combined with the other two buildings Karademas has redeveloped downtown, that’s 180 apartment units, he said.
Built by the historic Chicago architectural firm Saxe & Zimmerman in 1926, The Mayan holds a long history in the area and even a place on the National Register of Historic Places. According to the register, the four-story building is one of the few examples of Mayan-style, “Prairie School” architecture in the United States.
The ornamentation, both exterior and interior, is taken from the Late Classic and Early Post-Classic periods of the Mayan civilization in Meso-America, according to the national register.
Revamping a historic building with unique architecture has posed some difficulties, said Karademas. Saving the terrazzo floor on the first floor has been challenging, and construction staff continues to discover things they did not expect, he said.
But unique architecture is one reason he believes Aurora has a bright future.
“This entire town has so much potential,” he said.
awright@chicagotribune.com