Plans for downtown Joliet have emphasized the need for more residents for years, and John Bays is providing the means.

The city on Thursday celebrated the opening of Bays Towers, a 140-apartment building with the potential to inject new life into the downtown business district, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The building is not quite half-filled, but it’s already making an impact on business downtown.

Cesar Cardenas, a Joliet City Council member who owns the 310 Shared Space building across Ottawa Street from Bays Towers, said his Social Butterfly coffee has seen a surge in business from Bays’ tenants.

“We’ve seen an impact already from people coming to the coffee shop,” Cardenas said. “We added lunch sandwiches and breakfast sandwiches.”

The menu expansion was directly due to business from Bays Towers, he said.

Meanwhile, Jitters, another downtown coffee shop, plans to open a second location inside Bays Tower.

“This is great for our community,” Amber Duffy, a member of the family who owns and operates Jitters, said Thursday of Bays Towers as she joined tours of the building. “They’re going to be supporting our community, supporting our retail.”

Bays is the biggest developer in downtown Joliet.

Bays Tower may be his biggest project yet, turning a former public housing project into a high-rise apartment building that, if successful, will show that downtown Joliet can attract residents who have the wherewithal to live elsewhere.

Rent at the apartments, which include studios, one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units, starts at $1,250.

“What I’m trying to do is make it affordable to people,” Bays said. “But the screening we put people through is very tough. There’s not going to be any police calls at my place, I’ll tell you that.”

In comments before cutting the ribbon at the ceremony Thursday, Bays again delivered the message that he plans to keep his apartments trouble-free and off Joliet police’s radar.

“We’re screening people,” Bays told the ribbon-cutting crowd. “We’re going to get some real good people downtown.”

The apartments at 331 N. Ottawa St. were last named the Murphy Building and run by the Housing Authority of Joliet.

“The building was all concrete,” Bays said repeatedly. “This place was like a prison cell.”

Cinder blocks in the apartments reflect the institutional origins of the building. Bays has paneled walls and made other improvements to make the apartments more inviting.

Bays acquired the building for $4.7 million and spent more than $13 million to convert it to private apartments, according to city records.

Bays said he plans to spend more on the building.

“I’m really happy with the property right now, but it’s going to be way better,” he said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Bays has other buildings that have been adapted for residential use, including the rectory at the former St. Anthony’s Church downtown, which the Diocese of Joliet closed and then sold to Bays.

Linda Dyke, who was secretary at St. Anthony’s before it closed, attended the ceremony on Thursday.

Dyke said the improvements at Bays Tower are impressive.

“It’s like you’re at a high-end hotel,” Dyke said of the apartments. “It’s safe and secure.”