Local developers bringing restaurant, retail, apartments to downtown Sterling

STERLING – A restaurant with a nutritious world food flair, new retail and/or office space and five new apartments are in the works for two decrepit and largely unused buildings in downtown Sterling.

Local developers Brian Carradus and Kurt Studnicki, owners of Kurt and Brian Properties, bought the old Haymarket Tap building at 123 E. Third St., on the corner of East Third and Second Avenue, and the Beans, Books & Beliefs building right next door, at 121 E. Third.

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Developers Brian Carradus (left) and Kurt Studnicki talk about their plans after purchasing the former Beans, Books and Beliefs and Haymarket buildings in downtown Sterling. A restaurant will be going into the Beans side, possible retail space in the former bar and apartments back upstairs. (Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@shawmedia.com/credit)

The Haymarket building, originally a bar and restaurant, closed decades ago, and Beans closed before the pandemic.

Both buildings need extensive renovation, Carradus said.

The crown jewel of the site will be Subo, a restaurant in the Beans space offering a mix of recipes influences by cultures from all over the world – Asian, Russian, Spanish, and Filipino, to name a few, owner Mai Agkaweele said.

Agkaweele calls her technique “stealth nutrition,” because she incorporates all kinds of superfoods into her creations – microgreens, grains, beans and the like.

Because the Beans building is “restaurant ready,” she needs only to paint and add some finishing touches before her opening on June 22, she said.

She plans not only a full-service sit-down restaurant, but also a meal-prep business, where customers can buy one meal or a week’s worth of food to prepare at home. They even will be able to design their own meals, Agkaweele said, adding that she is working on an app that will allow them to customize their dishes and order their food.

Agkaweele is excited to bring something new and different to the area that also will help busy moms provide their families with nutritious meals, or allow local factory workers to pick up food on their way home that will put fast food to shame.

Her food “will pack a punch, healthwise,” and “it also will be very, very easy to whip out of the freezer and microwave,” she said.

This is Agkaweele’s first venture into the restaurant world.

“I have fed people for as long as I can remember, but this will be the first time I will be feeding people in my own space,” she said.

Most importantly, though, “I want to make good food affordable.”

the Haymarket building’s tenants are yet to be determined, although “there’s been a lot of interest” in the space, Carradus said.

Upstairs, there will be two two-bedroom apartments over the restaurant, and two one-bedrooms and a studio above the retail and/or office space.

One of the nicest features: The old Haymarket Tap sandwich mural – ‘Home of the Original Corned Beef” – will be restored.

“We definitely are going to work that into plan,” Carradus said.

Financing is in place, and the Sterling Planning Commission signed off on the plan Thursday. It now goes before the City Council for its stamp of approval, probably at its May 2 meeting.

If all goes as expected, the project should be completed in about a year, he said.

Skip McCloud of McCloud & Associates Architecture in Sterling is the designer.

The firm also is designing nearby The Shoppes at Grandon Plaza, Sterling Main Street’s small-business incubator being built in the empty lot at 310 Second Ave.

Kurt and Brian Properties specializes in saving ugly, unloved sites that are on their deathbeds, Carradus said.

“Our thing is, we kind of bring things things back to life other people pass over.”

All told, they have about 20 properties in Sterling and Rock Falls, he said.

For example, they are in the midst of renovating several structures damaged by fire, including a two-unit apartment complex in Rock Falls vacant for about 12 years.

They pair, who have been partners for four years but have 20 years’ experience each buying and renovating properties, also rescued a home in Sterling that was in line to be condemned and demolished.

“It’s not feasible right now with the cost to build, that’s why we like to save them,” Carradus said. “It helps the tax rolls, it helps the community.”

This is the third major project announced recently for downtown Sterling.

In addition to the business incubator, another local developer, Justin Wiggins, announced in January that he will be building 10 luxury, furnished apartments in the top five floors of the Midland States Banks building at 302 First Ave.

Wiggins, owner of WCT Midwest and Lee Development, is buying the seven-story building at 302 First Ave. and converting floors three through seven into five one-bedroom and five two-bedroom apartments, to be called Riverview Lofts.

The bank and its drive-thru will remain.