Troubled Riverside Plaza in Algonquin sells for $12.7M

A prominent downtown Algonquin apartment complex with a troubled history has been sold.

On Tuesday, real estate investment firm Marcus & Millichap announced the $12.7 million sale of Riverside Plaza, a mixed-use property composed of 63 apartments and six retail units at
1 N. Main St.

Marcus & Millichap marketed the property on behalf of UCF Riverside Fee Owner LLC, a financial institution that acquired the property through foreclosure in 2017.

UCF sold the complex to a California-based company known as FTA Property, according to Marcus & Millichap seller Eric Bell.

“They’re a very large group out of California,” Bell said. “They own quite a few properties in Chicagoland ... probably a couple thousand units.”

Bell said the company hopes to “professionally manage it” and “try to lease up the retail and continue operating as an apartment building.”

The apartments were 92 percent occupied at the time of closing, while the retail spaces were vacant, according to a news release from Marcus & Millichap.

“It’s a very good thing,” Algonquin Village President John Schmitt said. “We’re very excited.”

The complex has faced numerous hurdles since its inception.

In 2006, the village selected Bruce Hawkins, former owner of Aspen Homebuilders, to construct 54 luxury condominiums.

Aspen Homebuilders went bankrupt two years later, effectively ending construction after the bank cut off funding, according to Northwest Herald reports. The building sat unfinished and wrapped in Tyvek for two to three years.

Hawkins pleaded guilty in January 2013 to defrauding a bank of more than $1 million.

In July 2014, Hawkins was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. John Bruegelmans of Riverside Plaza Developers LLC took over the project in 2011, and the village approved his idea to convert the condos into apartments in 2012. Residents began moving in in 2015. Bruegelmans filed for bankruptcy in 2016.

Upon taking ownership of the complex a year later, UCF Riverside hired new management, evicted problematic tenants, re-rented the units and began marketing the street-level retail spaces instead of foreclosing on the building.

A phone number and website for FTA Property could not be found.