Route 59 sites in Joliet still awaiting development

JOLIET – The Tower Marketplace signs rising over an empty field give testimony to the retail and restaurant center that has not been built.

The undeveloped land is one of three Joliet locations targeted this year by Hawk Auto for a new Route 59 location for its Subaru dealership.

Just what will happen at any of the locations is uncertain. But Hawk Auto, unable to make a deal on any of them, now plans to move its Subaru dealership out of Joliet to a Route 59 location in Plainfield.

“I certainly tried to stay in Joliet,” Hawk Auto President John Crane told The Herald-News last month.

Route 59 was a hot spot for retail development in the pre-recession years when Walmart, Kohl’s and Starbucks opened locations along the Joliet stretch of the road. Many smaller stores and restaurants opened, too, for a market created by the new subdivisions being built on the far west side of Joliet.

Tower Marketplace was announced as an upscale development for unique dining and shopping that would provide a destination and gathering place for the residents in the newest neighborhoods of Joliet.

But other than an LA Fitness center, which stands in the very back end of Tower Marketplace, nothing else has opened on the land at the northwest corner of Route 59 and Theodore Street.

The other corner

Meijer and Lowe’s once were said to be considering stores across Route 59 on the northeast corner.

“At one time we were looking at doing some big boxes out there,” said Mark Koenig, the real estate agent handling the land on the northeast corner of Theodore Street. “At one time, it was supposed to be a Meijer. That’s probably not going to happen any time soon.”

The same retail retrenchment that has led to store closings around the country is making it harder to attract big-box stores to Route 59, Koenig said.

Even so, Koenig said, “There’s a lot of interest in 59.”

The plan for the northeast corner now is to develop smaller stores and offices along Route 59 and build homes in the back section of the property, although that could change, Koenig said.

Hawk Auto also was interested in the northeast corner..

Koenig declined to discuss why no deal was made. Hawk President John Crane has said it was a matter of price.

Wedgewood Golf Course

Hawk also was interested in Route 59 land that fronts the Wedgewood Golf Course at the corner of Caton Farm Road.

The Joliet Partk District has been trying to sell the land for years.

Crane said the park officials were concerned that golf balls would fly into car lot.

Park District Executive Director Tom Carstens has declined to discuss the reasons a deal was not made with Hawk. He said the park district is negotiating a sale of the land with another buyer but declined to say more.

Carstens said last week that no agreement has been reached on the land.

Tower Marketplace

The Tower Marketplace deal fell through, Crane said, when LA Fitness exercised an option in a restrictive covenant to block construction of a car dealership at the development.

Real estate brokers handling the Tower Marketplace property could not be reached for comment.

CB Richard Ellis, the company handling the land, has a sign on the site promising an 18,000-square-foot retail building coming soon. The company’s website describes a multi-tenant building to be built this summer.

Plainfield site

Hawk Auto now plans to put the Subaru dealership on a 15-acre site on the southwest corner of Fraser Road. Crane said last month that Hawk has a pending deal to buy the property.

Plainfield village officials are not talking about Hawk’s plans, saying nothing has been officially presented to the village yet.

Jake Melrose, economic development specialist for the village, said the village has several sites along Route 59 available for development.

One established strip center, Plainfield Plaza at Fort Beggs Drive, is being renovated. Big Pauly’s Wood Fired Pizza will be added at one end of the plaza and a Jimmy John’s sandwich shop will fill a vacant spot on the other end.

Melrose said other vacant sites on Route 59 are awaiting development. But, he said, “There’s plenty of opportunity.”