Another Starbucks coming to Joliet’s west side

Starbucks needs more locations to meet demand in Joliet, the developer for the next Starbucks on Jefferson Street said this week.

Mitch Goltz with GW Properties, which will redevelop the former Bakers Square restaurant at 2211 W. Jefferson St., told the Joliet City Council this week that Starbucks needs the space to accommodate local demand for its drinks.

The council on Tuesday approved the drive-thru permit that Starbucks needs for the new building. GW Properties will demolish the former Bakers Square building and replace it with a new Starbucks.

The Starbucks at 2211 W. Jefferson St. will lighten the load for an existing Starbucks about three blocks west, Goltz told the council Tuesday.

“We’ve designed 15 to 20 Starbucks in the Chicago area,” Goltz told the council.

The Starbucks at the former Bakers Square location will complement the redevelopment that GW Properties is conducting next door, Goltz said.

Demolition fencing now surrounds the former Bakers Square and the neighboring strip center that is empty.

Council member Suzanna Ibarra noted the long lines outside the drive-thru window at the Starbucks in the Menards shopping center at Jefferson and Caterpillar Drive before casting her vote in favor of the permit for a drive-thru at the next location.

“Although it’s very close, there definitely is a need for those coffee addicts,” Ibarra said.

GW Properties is handling a number of redevelopment projects on West Jefferson Street, and Goltz said the new Starbucks will help improve the street’s image.

Another developer last year tried to bring a Starbucks to an Essington Road location at the corner of Thomas Hickey Drive. But the City Council turned down the application for a drive-thru permit amid opposition from a neighboring day care center and residents in the area.

Starbucks has been adding locations in Joliet, with the most recent openings being at the North Ridge Plaza on Larkin Avenue and at a new strip center built at the site of a demolished Pier One store along Plainfield Road near the Louis Joliet Mall.