Gulf Express On Larkin: Another Blight On Joliet

JOLIET, IL — It's been six months since the Joliet City Council flexed its muscles and voted to make the Gulf Express at 212 South Larkin Ave. a public nuisance. The Joliet gas station is owned by Samer Farhan, according to city records.

"The property has been vacant and boarded for over six months," a Joliet City Council memo from last September read.

Now that Joliet's City Council has taken action against Gulf, things are pretty much the same.

On Tuesday, Joliet Patch visited the Gulf Express and the business remains closed. The fuel pumps are covered with plywood, and one of the storefront windows has boards on it.

Having a boarded up gas station right off Joliet's busy Interstate 80 exit on Larkin Avenue is not a positive showing for the state's fourth largest city.

Joliet's corporation counsel has said previously that it often takes a couple of years for city officials to prevail in court on a public nuisance litigation case.

Typically, the city wants the property owner to rectify the problem by making the necessary improvements to bring the property back up to satisfactory condition. When that is not practical, the city often hires a demolition contractor to knock the place down.

Businesses, especially gas stations, can be more problematic because they have underground fuel storage tanks.

On Wednesday, Joliet Patch interviewed long-time Joliet gas station owner Terry Lambert for his perspective about the empty Gulf Express on Larkin Avenue.

Lambert's family has owned the Mobil station at Broadway and Theodore Streets since 1957. Lambert also owned the PS Fuels gas station on West Jefferson Street until he sold that station in December.

Lambert said the empty Gulf Express on Larkin Avenue is not in a great location for a gas station to thrive. He said it's in the middle of a city block along a busy road, and it's extremely difficult for motorists pulling out of the station to go south to get back on Interstate 80.

And there's the competition with "the big guys."

He said that Speedway, Delta Sonic and the Thorntons gas station are the dominant businesses along West Jefferson Street.

"It's a tough location," Lambert said, referring to the empty Gulf. "It's in the center of the stretch. With Speedway, Delta Sonic and Thorntons, it's very competitive and hard to make a profit."

Lambert told Joliet Patch it might be a good idea for the city of Joliet to redevelop the Gulf Express property for something other than a gas station.

In any event, Joliet now has two empty gas stations with convenience stores at major entrances to the city.

On Tuesday, Joliet Patch reported that the Citgo station near the Joliet Regional Airport on West Jefferson Street has been closed for a number of months. The owners of that business along Airport Drive have blamed Joliet's crime rate for putting them out of business.

Some readers have suggested that Citgo was doomed to fail because it's in a horrible location. It's way down the road from the Interstate 55 exit, and it's somewhat secluded.

Here's a sampling of comments from readers on the Citgo story in Joliet Patch:

"One of the biggest boneheaded decisions in the history of all the boneheads that have served on the Joliet City Council.........Approving a gas station at the end of an airport runway."

"This is not just a Joliet thing, I've seen it in several towns on my way too and from work. Joliet needs to make Citgo cover the sign out by the street. And if the station isn't opened in a certain amount of time it should be removed at the owners expense. And removal of long standing empty businesses should not be limited to just this gas station.I'm not the one to advocate for more laws but this might be a good one to have on the books."

"I have stopped there in the past for gas. Good luck reading the display on the pumps. The displays look like they were cleaned with sandpaper. I always thought that the owners were a-holes too. Good riddance..."