Housing at Joliet Sears site faces questions

The chairman of the Joliet City Council Economic Development Committee said it’s too soon to consider converting part of the Louis Joliet Mall to housing.

A suburban auto group in December acquired the former Sears property at the mall for what is likely to be a car dealership on at least part of the 16.7-acre site.

Ghaben Auto Group has not presented any plans to the city for what it plans to do with the property. But a city’s economic development director last week said the group is considering residential development along an auto dealership.

The site, which includes a large parking area with the former two-story department store building, which also had an auto service center and store warehouse, has been vacant since Sears closed in early 2019.

But Council member Larry Hug, who heads the Economic Development Committee, said it’s too soon to give up on sales tax-producing commercial development on the site.

“To rezone it this early away from tax-producing commercial and retail makes no sense,” Hug said.

Hug pointed to the old Jefferson Square mall on Jefferson Street, which sat nearly empty for years before Menards tore it down and built the existing shopping center that includes a Walmart.

“It got redeveloped,” Hug said. “This [Louis Joliet Mall] is more prime real estate than on Jefferson. It’s right off the interstate.”

The city last year approved a 570-apartment complex as part of the development of the future Rock Run Crossings project at Interstates 55 and 80, which is envisioned as a future retail center along with other uses. Hug was one of two votes against the apartments.

Redevelopment of the nation’s indoor malls, no longer the retail meccas they once were, has included plans for housing to create built-in customer traffic.

“Other malls are doing it,” Mayor Bob O’Dekirk said, noting the apartments planned at Rock Run Crossings. “But that’s different. There aren’t Joliet neighborhoods across from it.”

O’Dekirk said the Sears site’s proximity to established neighborhoods would rule out high-density apartments, although he would consider other types of housing.

Hug, too, said he could accept town homes or single-family development in the future if the site cannot be developed commercially but would oppose apartments.

“I favor commercial development and would not support apartments,” Hug said.