Downtown's Premier Building: Will It Sell In 2019?

JOLIET, IL - Downtown Joliet's resurgence has been in full swing the past couple years and that means the real estate market is heating up. In December, notable commercial investor John Bays acquired the Two Rialto Square Building just north of the Rialto Square Theatre.

His company has been busy gutting the interior of the building in recent weeks. Also, the empty Barrett's Hardware store on North Ottawa Street was sold last year to a Joliet hotel entrepreneur.

According to the city, the Premier Building near the Jackson Street Bridge is another large building that offers great potential. Decades ago, it was used by the Commonwealth Edison. However, the property has been vacant in recent history. The city of Joliet is hoping 2019 will be the year that someone buys the property to continue with the ongoing revitalization efforts.

The city of Joliet does not own the Premier Building, noted Derek Conley, Joliet's economic development specialist, who works closely with assistant city manager Steve Jones.

Caton Commercial is the broker for the site, which is currently listed at $849,000. The brick building overlooking the Des Plaines River encompasses 40,000 square feet.

The property is also part of the city's downtown Tax Increment Finance district and it's eligible for several other financial and tax incentives, according to Conley.

The online advertisement for the Premier Building has the site marketed for warehouse use, but Conley isn't convinced that's practical.

"We don't really see it being utilized as a warehouse," he told Joliet Patch. He envisions it serving as a single-use office or converting it into residential.

"I don't really recommend chopping it up into a bunch of different uses," he said.

Conley said he is hopeful that a buyer will come forward this year and acquire the property. He and Jones have made marketing downtown Joliet a major priority. In recent months, the city participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the corner of Ottawa and Cass Streets for the Illinois Marine Towing, which consolidated its offices from several different locations to move to downtown Joliet into the former Catholic Charities Building, now owned by Bays.

In October, the Barrister Investigations company opened its office on North Chicago Street on the third floor of the First Midwest Bank office. About 35 employees work inside the downtown Joliet office while another 40 employees are out in the field, serving legal papers. The firm processes court filings, E-filings for lawyers, background searches, skip tracing and case management, among other things.

In the meantime, another property with great potential according to the city is the AT&T Building, which is less than two blocks away from the Premier Building.

The AT&T Building on Webster Street was the subject of an online auction in late January.

Conley said it was his understanding there were a handful of interested buyers who made bids on the property, but the bids were all rejected. However, Conley said that some of the possible buyers may be trying to negotiate with the broker.

RELATED: Giant AT&T Building Faces Online Auction

Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor