Sale of Jaffe building in Kankakee hits another snag

It was hoped that the former Jaffe Drugs building at 217 E. Court St. in Kankakee would be on the market now for potential investors.

Yet another hurdle has to be cleared before the Kankakee Regional Land Bank Authority can put the building back on the market. The building’s facade has been repaired, and asbestos removal has been completed in the boiler room in the basement.

The final step of clearing the building of its leftover pharmaceuticals is still to be completed. The Land Bank Board was informed that the company contracted to dispose of the pharmaceuticals, Midwest Environmental Consulting Services, needs the excess boxes from the basement removed so it can have a clear path to do the work.

“Midwest came back to inspect for removal of drugs and asked that the boxes now in the basement be removed before they can remediate the drugs,” Land Bank Executive Director the Rev. Montele Crawford said at Tuesday’s monthly meeting.

Board member Barbi Brewer-Watson said Midwest needs a clear path to the drugs. She consulted with the city’s Department of Public Works, which said it would take multiple days to clear the room. There are a lot of boxes filled with paper and miscellaneous junk.

The board decided to seek some estimates from local junk removal companies to remove all the non-pharmaceutical boxes, or enough of the junk, so Midwest will have a clear path to do its job. It was determined that most of the excess will be thrown in a dumpster, while some of the paper/medical records might have to be shredded.

The Land Bank’s lawyer, Brent Denzin, who specializes in land banking and environmental law, said there’s no legal obligation one way or the other on how to manage the old records, but to use best professional judgment.

“To the extent you have a box full of paper documents and a shredder, I would shred,” he said. “I always would go to shredding whenever you’re destroying paper documents, but that’s not always possible.”

Clearing the basement will allow Midwest Environmental to more easily go through the pharmaceuticals rather than every box that’s in the room.

Crawford said he would contact local contractors this week to get estimates to remove the junk from the basement. Brewer-Watson said she doesn’t know how soon the work can be completed.

“I have no timeline,” she said. “I wish I did. I have to wait until we get the estimates.”

Once the basement is cleared of the junk, Midwest Environmental will need about two weeks or so to remove the pharmaceuticals.