Panel recommends strategy to revive downtown Joliet

ULI Chicago and the Campaign for Sensible Growth recommend housing and retail development strategies for the city of Joliet and City Center Partnership.

By Kristi DeLaurentiis
June 1, 2004

Joliet city officials have been hard at work through the last decade reinventing their downtown, trying to create both a destination for families and an entertainment atmosphere attractive enough to spur reinvestment from developers and entice residents to move in.

Following years of economic decline in the City Center area, the city’s historic downtown business district, they’ve experienced success with Silver Cross Baseball Stadium, benefited from Harrah’s Casino and brought in several restaurants. Yet, city and downtown business leaders continue to grapple with what to work on next and struggle to bring a 24-hour, round-the-clock vibrancy to this regional center.

Faced with many challenges and a concern for the city’s tarnished image, community leaders determined they could use a little help -- along with a fresh perspective -- on where to focus future efforts. John Mezera, Joliet’s city manager, and Tom Mahalik, vice president for Joliet City Center Partnership, reached out to the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Chicago and the Campaign for Sensible Growth. They asked to be considered for a technical assistance panel (TAP), one of three scheduled for 2004, wanting “new eyes” on Joliet’s downtown.

Joliet’s recent history has included a heavy investment of public dollars into infrastructure projects, ranging from the Jackhammers’ baseball stadium and NASCAR track on the outskirts of town, to the purchase and restoration of historic buildings and public spaces, to additions of street lighting, brick pavers, streetscapes and more. Most older industrial cities don’t have the capital investment dollars available to them that Joliet does (resulting from the casino), but Joliet’s revitalization efforts still serve as a model for other older disinvested urban centers. For that reason, ULI Chicago and the Campaign selected Joiliet as the site of its first TAP of the year.

On May 19 and 20, 2004, 11 industry leaders with expertise in real estate, retail, housing, market analysis, financing, planning and development met as a panel. Over two intense days, they examined Joliet’s ongoing efforts to revitalize the City Center area. Although city leaders had worked from a 14-year-old City Center comprehensive plan, they were facing a critical juncture on how to enhance the downtown district further. They asked the panelists to answer some fundamental questions and generate strategic recommendations on how to bring more families downtown and integrate surrounding neighborhoods into the downtown district, thus transforming the area into a vibrant center.

The questions they posed to the panel were:

What would be an appropriate retail market for Joliet’s City Center? What niche can it fill?
What infrastructure improvements need to be made to improve traffic patterns, parking, signage, etc., to meet the market and community needs?
What is the recommended layout and use for the riverfront area?
What housing needs and market can the downtown fill?
What role can the growth of the Latino businesses in the Collin Street area and the adjacent industrial sites play in a redevelopment strategy?

Preliminary materials included maps, plans and research generated by both the city and the City Center Partnership, all provided to the panelists in advance of their two-day commitment. The panel started by hearing a presentation from Joliet’s planner and then toured of downtown. This was followed with interview sessions with village officials, area leaders, businessmen and residents to gain insight into the local vision for the city. The panelists then got to work, bringing their experience and expertise to the table, debating the issues before developing recommendations, and preparing for a public presentation where they presented their findings.

At the conclusion of the two days, the panel's recommendations built off of what the city had already done to enhance the downtown district. They embraced the voiced desire of local leaders to maintain the city as a diverse regional center and complemented their decision to locate the stadium in its downtown region, close to public transit and other amenities. They recognized the physical assets of the city -- the riverfront, historic buildings and existing infrastructure -- the people, and its location as the county seat and regional hub as attributes to upon which to build. But they did find that there were short- and long-term opportunities that were not being capitalized on, and were able to make substantive suggestions about where to focus efforts.

Unique limestone buildings in downtown Joliet can be resused for housing and retail development

Their recommendations included:

Seek to attract mostly smaller, niche, independent retailers at first – with larger franchises to come later -- and a housing mix with varied price points for low- to mid-rise condominium developments.
Change Cass Street to two-way and attempt to cluster shops near the intersection of Cass and Chicago streets rather than continuing to “shotgun” them wherever they happened to go. Retail could then expand outward from that core.
Consider a major mixed-use development, incorporating retail and housing development, that would anchor the riverfront and serve as a gateway to downtown from the Westside.
Focus initially on a housing market below $200,000 to entice residents to move downtown. Convert upper stories of existing building stock to residential.
Develop transit-oriented housing near Union Station, the terminus for two Metra lines.
Create a pedestrian linkage between the Harrah’s casino and the ballpark, and convert surface-level parking next to the parking garage in the center of downtown to a green space to serve new residential development.
Draw pedestrian traffic onto the street with such events as public artwork, live music and attractions related to the history of Route 66.
Preserve the older, architecturally significant buildings that other communities would love to have and formulate design standards for new ones.
Find communities to model after, and issue requests-for-proposals for key sites, including the Union Station area, riverfront and USX land, ensuring that big box development on the latter site does not wipe out retail efforts downtown.
Plan to “heavily incentivize” the first wave of development and then be able to do so less and less, similar to what many other communities have done.
Produce marketing materials and sell itself to developers through such venues as the annual International Council for Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas.

The panelists also developed an implementation strategy for city officials to consider that included recommendations for use of incentives available for financing projects, including tax-increment financing to issue bonds to provide up-front cash assistance to defray acquisition and development costs to jump start redevelopment, and thinking “out of the box” with public/private partnerships to establish national franchises or underwrite tenant improvements for a marquee retail investment.

Following the presentation, city officials responded positively, appreciating that the panelists made specific recommendations. City Councilman Tim Brophy asked, “You’ve given us a lot of possibilities -- where do you recommend we start first?” Don Fisher, Joliet’s director of planning, voiced, “The suggested strategy to return Cass Street to two-ways is intriguing. We’ll have to look at that feasibility and begin to focus efforts there.” As John Mezera clearly stated as he thanked the panel, “The initial development is critically important to the downtown -- we have to get it right in order for our City Center to flourish.”

The Joliet City Center Redevelopment Strategy Executive Summary is available online at www.growingsensibly.org.