Crystal Lake’s biggest development aims to open commercial spaces, finish apartments by year’s end

Construction is moving along at Water’s Edge, Crystal Lake‘s largest development, with a goal to have a public park open this summer followed by retail spaces by the end of the year.

Developer Heartland Real Estate Partners celebrated its progress on the 30-acre project, located at the former Crystal Court shopping center on Route 14 adjacent to Three Oaks Recreation Area, with a multi-chamber ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday with the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce and the Cary-Grove Area Chamber of Commerce. The project includes retail buildings with restaurant spaces, a public park, an overlook of the north Three Oaks Recreation Area lake, townhomes and apartments.

Residents started to move in to the first-built apartments late last year, and residential construction continues with 60 apartment units completed of 240 total, Heartland managing principal Tim Grogan said. About 25 people are currently living on the property, and Grogan said he expects to bring in an additional 20 people each month.

The 12 apartment buildings are on track to be completed by the end of this year, while groundbreaking on the 20 townhome units just started and are expected to be completed by early next year, Grogan said.

Construction on two of the three commercial buildings is scheduled to start next week, with a goal for customers to be shopping and eating at the restaurants by the end of the year, Grogan said. Developers will start on the final commercial building once the Jimmy John’s lease expires at the end of the year. The plan is to demolish the building that Jimmy John’s resides in to make way for a parking lot, according to Crystal Lake city documents.

Contracts with commercial tenants are not yet finalized, so no businesses have been named. Core Acquisitions Vice President of Development Adam Bell said at a previous Crystal Lake planning and zoning meeting that they are looking to bring in “high-class users that are high-volume, national brands that are exciting and new to the community.”

Bell said they are working with a “national breakfast/brunch chain,” a national eyeglass and optometry company and a national quick-service restaurant that will have a pickup window for mobile and online orders. With seven total tenants, developers have contracts pending for the west half of the retail space with “a lot of interest” for the east section, Grogan said.

“People needed to see it actually happen,” he said.

A public open space that will be owned by the city once construction is completed is planned to debut by July 4, Grogan said. The park will include a pavilion, public art murals and sculptures, game areas, multiple seating areas and an overlook at North Lake.

The creation of open spaces for residents only also are underway, with goals of basketball, pickleball and sand volleyball courts being completed this summer. A clubhouse, dog park, pool and fitness center already are completed.

“We‘ve built exactly what we said we were going to build,” Grogan said.

One-bedroom units start at $1,904 a month for 835 square feet, with the other end of the price range being $2,846 a month for a two-bedroom unit with 1,408 square feet, according to the Water’s Edge website.

Water’s Edge started construction in 2023 on what eventually will be more than 40,000 square feet of retail and restaurant spaces, open public areas and 260 units of housing, the city said in a 2023 news release. The project is the largest in the city, according to the release.