Crystal Lake’s Oakbrook Estates bought for almost $37M with expansion planned

With the purchase last week of Oakbrook Estates in Crystal Lake, Ravinia Communities and Marc Realty are expected to continue putting up manufactured housing units, a Crystal Lake city official said.

Oakbrook Estates, at 917 Crookedstick Court, Crystal Lake, described as an “age-restricted, 300-home, active-adult community,” was bought for $36.84 million via a loan from Associated Bank, working with Great Southern Bank, according to a news release from Associated Banc-Corp.

Marc Realty is a commercial real state company that owns, leases and manages properties in the Chicago area. Ravinia Communities specializes in the acquisition, management and development of manufactured housing communities throughout the U.S.

The new owners would not need to go through zoning approval because the property is already zoned for it, Crystal Lake Community Development Director Kathryn Cowlin said.

“The manufactured homes were originally approved for a second phase that they had started, but not completed,” Cowlin said. “Their intent is to complete it.”

The original owners stopped the second phase sometime in the 1990s, Cowlin said, with 130 manufactured homes still approved, according to the city’s records. The number of manufactured homes to be added will be 114, according to the news release from Associated Banc-Corp.

The city issues permits for the new pads or slabs that go under the manufactured homes, Cowlin said.

The new owners have not applied for those permits, but did apply for a site permit to prepare it for housing units, she said.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sets the standard for manufactured homes, which are created in a factory and then assembled at the building site in modular sections, according to its website.

A spokesman for Marc Realty referred questions to Jonathan Uretz at Ravinia Communities, but attempts to reach Uretz last week were not successful. A message left at the Oakbrook Estates Homeowners Association also was not returned.

A two-bedroom, two-bathroom manufactured home in the 800 block of Oakbrook Drive in Oakbrook Estates’ 55 and older community sold Oct. 30, 2021 for $62,900, according to a real estate listing from Homes By Marco Re/Max Suburban.

The neighborhood bills itself as providing “a picturesque setting with natural rolling terrain, thick aged oak trees, and waterfront scenery” located “[j]ust two miles from the heart of Crystal Lake.”

One ad for a home that sold recently also touted the low property taxes: Under state law, owners pay taxes based on the age and square footage of the housing units.

In the first and second year, they pay 15 cents per square foot down to 7.5 cents per square foot in the 15th and all subsequent years, according to state law.

The owners of the underlying land pay local property taxes, McHenry County Assessor Bob Ross said.

Oakbrook Estates is on three parcels totaling 62.8 acres. According to county property tax records online, the ownership – listed as a land trust – paid $222,576.68 in local property taxes in 2021 for the 2020 tax year.