Louis Joliet Mall district in Joliet still attracting new business

Tru by Hilton, a new hotel, opened Thursday outside the Louis Joliet Mall, one sign that the commercial district surrounding the mall retains vitality.

“It’s busy over here,” Xiomara Ramos, general manager for the new Tru by Hilton, said this week as she prepared for opening day for the hotel.

The hotel will feature 98 rooms, a business center and a lobby with a game room and snack bar that Ramos said will appeal to both business travelers and families.

It’s the type of business Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy may have had in mind when he talked about “a new chapter” for the mall corridor during his State of the City speech last month.

“Our vision is to transform the mall corridor into a vibrant, mixed-use destination, a place where people can shop, dine, live, work and play,” D’Arcy said.

The city is “actively working with developers to bring new housing and mixed-use concepts that will breathe new life into the entire corridor,” D’Arcy said.

After the speech, he acknowledged that the city is just getting started on its mall corridor revitalization effort, but one potential new source of development is apartments.

The city has been in discussions with potential apartment developers, Joliet Economic Developer Paulina Martinez said in response to questions from The Herald-News.

But the plans are “too premature to discuss at this time,” she said.

The mall area remains an active market for new business, Martinez said.

Five new business licenses have been issued in the mall area so far in 2025, she said.

That’s 16% of all licenses issued by the city, which Martinez said “is the highest percentage for a single business district area.”

“Overall, Joliet has a very healthy retail vacancy rate at 3% and based on a windshield inventory of the area surrounding the mall, there are only about six empty storefronts,” she said. “Inside the mall, there are only 10 empty storefronts, but mall management is working on two new contracts for this month.”

Mall vacancies, however, are very noticeable.

Two of the mall’s anchor stores – Sears and Carson Pirie Scott – closed years ago without signs yet of any redevelopment.

Ghaben Auto Group bought the 16.7-acre Sears property, which includes a large parking area around the store, in January 2023 without any announced plans for the site although apartments were under consideration.

Ghaben still owns the Sears property, and the former Carson’s property now is owned by New American Retail Fund LLC, Martinez said. She does not know of current plans for either site, Martinez said.

Three restaurants that once operated at entryways are now closed, leaving vacancies facing shoppers as they enter the mall at two locations.

Attempts to fill those spaces and develop remaining land around the mall are being made while there is new competition for big-box retailers, chain restaurants and hotels.

Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant recently opened in The Boulevard, a retail center under development on the other side of Interstate 55 from the Louis Joliet Mall on land that lies mostly in Plainfield and partly in Joliet.

Meanwhile, Cullinan Properties is trying to attract retailers, restaurants and hotels to its Rock Run Collection development to the south at the interchange of Interstates 55 and 80.

The five retail business licenses issued by the city this year for the mall area include a new Burlington clothing store and Crave Cookies in the Louis Joliet Pointe shopping center outside the mall.

Crave Cookies opened in January.

“Even though it was in the winter months, we had lines out the door every day,” Shift Leader Dixie Moore said Wednesday as she and her crew prepared cookie dough for the day.

Moore said Crave Cookies has been “very busy since we opened” thanks in part to its location in the mall district.

“We are so close to the mall and the food chains,” she said. “People go out to eat, and then they stop here.”