Starbucks developer says Joliet can support more locations

Yet another Starbucks location is coming to Joliet to share the large amount of business in town, a developer told the City Council last week.

The council last week approved a drive-thru permit for the latest proposed Starbucks, which is to be built on Houbolt Road near the intersection of McDonough Street.

The location is in the vicinity of Joliet Junior College, another reason for building a Starbucks there.

“We have four our five [Starbucks] on the docket, and they’re either near large high schools or colleges – junior colleges or four-year,” developer Daniel Abdo said.

The Houbolt Road location is Starbucks’ “new prototype, with a slightly larger store with a little more seating,” Adbo said.

Abdo is with Joseph Development in Chicago. He tried to get approval for a Starbucks on Essington Road in Joliet in October. But the drive-thru permit was rejected by the City Council after objections from an adjacent preschool and residential neighbors.

The next Starbucks proposal came to the City Council in early February, when it approved a drive-thru permit for a store that will replace the shuttered Bakers Square restaurant at 2211 W. Jefferson St. The developer of that Starbucks noted the store would relieve the long traffic lines at a Jefferson Street Starbucks nearby at Caterpillar Drive.

“I was a little bit concerned about the amount of Starbucks in a very short proximity,“ council member Suzanna Ibarra said to Abdo. “But I would imagine you have done your homework very well , and you wouldn’t put Starbucks where you didn’t think they would make money.”

Abdo said Starbucks is expanding in large communities.

Joliet “is considered a regional community,” he said. “And it really goes to balance of distribution.”

He noted a Starbucks on Western Avenue in Chicago in which his firm was involved. Because of the amount of traffic at the site, the city of Chicago asked Starbucks to add a location nearby, he said.

“They’re increasing their coverage, but they’re also doing it in a more distributable way,” Abdo said.

The Starbucks at 480 Houbolt Road is planned as a 2,450-square-foot restaurant with an outdoor patio. The drive-thru is designed for lines of as many as 17 cars.

Starbucks in the past few years has opened Joliet locations in the North Ridge Plaza on Larkin Avenue and in a new strip center along Plainfield Road outside Louis Joliet Mall. Starbucks also has a Joliet store on Route 59 and outlets in a Jewel-Osco and the Barnes & Noble bookstore.