May 24, 2025
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Jaffe building renovation hits road blocks

By Christopher Breach
The Jaffe Drugs building property was purchased by the Kankakee Regional Land Bank Authority, which has now taken ownership of 217 E. Court St. to get it cleaned up and sold.

The Jaffe Drugs building property was purchased by the Kankakee Regional Land Bank Authority, which has now taken ownership of 217 E. Court St. to get it cleaned up and sold. Those efforts have hit some obstacles. (Tiffany Blanchette)

KANKAKEE – Like the old song, “One Step Up, Two Steps Back,” the Kankakee Regional Land Bank Authority can relate with the renovation of the former Jaffe Drugs building on East Court Street in downtown Kankakee.

The Land Bank and Kankakee city administration had hoped the renovation of the former Jaffe Drugs store, 217 E. Court St., would be completed by early summer.

Now they’re singing the blues, so to speak.

“Never would I have thought that we still would be talking about 217 E. Court St.,” said Lisa Sanford, chairperson of the Land Bank’s board of directors.

The Rev. Montele Crawford, executive director of the Land Bank, shared Sanford’s frustration at the conclusion of Tuesday’s board meeting.

“It’s multi-layered, so it’s to be continued, unfortunately,” he said.

The Land Bank acquired the Jaffe building at the end of 2024 after it had sat vacant for a few years.

In February, the Land Bank arranged for cleanup of leftover pharmaceuticals to be completed by Midwest Environmental Consulting Services Inc., of Chicago, for $62,700.

Recently, Midwest informed the Land Bank it couldn’t do the cleanup until asbestos was removed from the building.

In addition, Midwest wants to charge another $6,000 to monitor the asbestos removal to ensure the air quality. The Land Bank knew some asbestos would need to be removed and was going to do that at another time.

“We didn’t hear about the requirement to abate the asbestos before the drugs were removed,” board member Matt Olszewski said. “And now we’re hearing, not only do we have a bid to abate the asbestos, we got to have the same company that can do the drug removal, wants to monitor the asbestos removal. I just don’t get it.”

Valor Technologies, of Bolingbrook, will do the asbestos removal, which is within the boiler room, for $9,500 and will also monitor the air quality. The Land Bank is going to inform Midwest that Valor will handle the monitoring of the air quality.

Earlier, the city of Kankakee agreed to pay a portion of the drug removal combined with some grants. The Land Bank will cover the cost of the asbestos removal. The board agreed getting the asbestos removed would make the property more marketable.

“If we remove the asbestos, that is something that will add value to that building,” board member Joe Nugent said.

Facade work delayed

In April, the Land Bank approved a proposal by PSI Construction, of Kankakee, for $10,221 to fix the building’s facade. That work would allow the barricade that’s in front of the Jaffe building, to protect from any debris possibly falling from the structure, to be removed.

PSI informed Crawford that it would have to close one lane of traffic on East Court Street to complete the work. Since Court Street is also a state highway (Illinois Route 17), the state has to approve the closure of the lane.

“[PSI] is working with the state to get the state to close the road now, so they’re waiting for that,” Sanford said.

PSI will need to have its trucks that have lifts on Court Street to do the work on the facade.

Once the closure can be worked out with the state, Crawford estimated it would take PSI approximately a week to do the work.

The Land Bank has no timeline on when the facade work and removal of the asbestos and drugs might begin and be completed.

“I had the feeling this was not going to be a smooth process,” Crawford said.