David Karademas fell for Aurora quickly – a love story we started covering a decade ago when the Milwaukee-based developer purchased three historic buildings on Stolp Island and at one point believed so strongly in this city he was considering moving with his family here.
That relationship soured, however, after he felt the city gave an incentive advantage to Amy Morton for her Stolp Island Social restaurant, which opened in 2019 and closed less than four years later.
That’s when Karademas, frustrated with what he saw as city officials’ lack of vision, announced he was leaving town.
But Aurora really never left him, in large part because of what he saw when he first set eyes here: A wildly successful Paramount Theatre that anchored a downtown resplendent with beautiful historic buildings.
Those included the 22-story Leland Tower and the other two buildings he purchased on Stolp Avenue, all of which have been redeveloped into a combined 181 apartments.
Among that trio was The Mayan, built in 1926 as the home of Elks Lodge 705 and recognized as a rare American example of Mayan Revival Architecture. The building, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, features irregular rough-textured reddish-brown bricks, and in contrast, terra-cotta ornamentation details, all of which sets it apart dramatically from more familiar commercial buildings in the area.
Karademas’ goal, after renovating The Mayan’s two upper floors into 29 upscale apartments, was always to put in a spectacular restaurant that would be “Paramount worthy.” Extensive plans were made for a fine-dining “destination” called Morley’s, named after the archeologist who Indiana Jones is based on and who was known for his work on Mayan civilization.
Although these ambitious plans were shelved when Karademas hit a roadblock with the city, he’s now back in the Aurora restaurant business – and at his beloved Mayan – through a partnership with restaurateur Abbey Kemph that he says is getting “great cooperation” from Mayor John Laesch and his administration.
Construction has been underway for about three weeks, and according to the partners, an opening date has been set for early April for the two distinctly different restaurants at the building.
The first one that visitors will enter through The Mayan’s Stolp Avenue entrance is a sports bar/restaurant called Playmakers that will be run by Jeff Allen. Toward the back will be the high end – and what Kemph describes as “more feminine” – Leilani’s Asian Fusion, which, you may recall, opened to much hype a couple years ago in the historic Hobbs Building at the corner of River Street and Galena Boulevard and closed less than a year later over disagreements with the ownership group.
Kemph, like Karademas, believes so strongly in downtown Aurora she was determined to reopen Leilani’s, which is named after her daughter with her late partner and businessman Jason Morales, who died with COVID-19 in 2022.
While the two new restaurants won’t mirror his “epic” vision for Morley’s, Karademas says they will feature a shared outdoor patio off Benton Street that is “a fusion of exotic and elegant” and an entrance with two fountains and masonry matching the building’s unique original stonework.
As much as I’d like to say that Karademas is back, the man himself argues he’s really never been away, not with the three properties he owns that make up a good chunk of Stolp Island. But there’s no doubt the developer’s interest in Aurora has been ignited again, and he’s certainly making more trips to the city from his headquarters in Milwaukee as he and Kemph combine their dreams.
“I am committing to this project enthusiastically because I think Aurora is ready to take the next step,” Karademas told me after a recent tour of the restaurant space now under construction. “The city has come a long way since I bought Leland Tower. A lot of developers outside here are talking about it. The city is at a crossroads. If the government is up to the challenge, we are going to see great changes in our downtown.”
As always, Karademas insisted, that success revolves around the Paramount Theatre.
Surprisingly, he was unaware of the controversy that’s surrounded the Aurora Civic Center Authority, which oversees the downtown theater and its other entertainment venues, since Mayor John Laesch took office in 2025 and dramatically slashed city funding to ACCA.
He was not happy about that news.
“I came here because of the Paramount,” said Karademas, who sees ACCA President Tim Rater and his organization as the city “loss leader.” If you cut back on the big draw that brings people to downtown Aurora, the negative ripple effect, he said, could reach far beyond the theater itself.
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That business philosophy is also how Karademas views this newest project that he hopes will financially benefit his Stolp Island apartments. The developer admits he’s investing a tremendous amount of money into these new restaurants that will share The Mayan’s 10,000-square-foot first floor. But “David is a perfectionist,” noted Kemph, which fits into her own business goals.
“To draw me down” from Wisconsin, even on this day when heavy rain made the drive that much more difficult, “I have to love it,” said Karademas. “This island … this entire town has so much potential.”