Lawsuit: Joliet Not Messing Around With Senor Tequila

JOLIET, IL —At a time when Joliet's West Jefferson Street is in the midst of a revitalization with lots of new restaurants opening, the abandoned Senor Tequila building remains in its current condition, but that may change soon. On Tuesday, City of Joliet Corporation Counsel Sabrina Spano filed a civil lawsuit that asks a Will County judge to grant Joliet an injunction to demolish the Senor Tequila property at 2219 West Jefferson St.

Although court records indicate the land is part of a trust, Joliet Patch has previously reported that Basinger's Pharmacy in the Marycrest Shopping Plaza owns the Senor Tequila property.

Basinger's plans to tear down the Senor Tequila property to build a new pharmacy and liquor store at 2219 West Jefferson St. have stalled during the past four years. Over that time, Basinger's has chosen to let the Senor Tequila property deteriorate and turn into a major eyesore along Joliet's busiest business corridor.

"It's an eyesore, it's a blight," Joliet's new city manager Jim Capparelli told Patch on Wednesday afternoon, saying he was on board with the legal department's decision to file the lawsuit.

"I can't wait for that place to be gone, so we can start cleaning up the place," Capparelli said. "We are serious about it."

In January, with the backing of Councilman Mike Turk, the Joliet City Council voted to make Senor Tequila's a public nuisance. That did not motivate Basinger's Pharmacy to act, so now the city's legal department is taking charge, using the Will County judicial system.

Tuesday's lawsuit asks a Will County judge to "expedite the hearing ... and give this suit precedence over other pending suits," Spano wrote.

Gabe Friend, the city of Joliet's property maintenance coordinator, "has determined that the structure is abandoned and in a dangerous and unsafe condition, unfit for occupancy and use, and therefore constitutes a public nuisance with imperils life, safety and health ... the structure does not comply with the minimum standards of health and safety ... thereby endangering the community as well as the occupants of the structure and the occupants of the structures abutting and adjacent ... and thereby causing irreparable harm to the city," Joliet's corporation counsel argued.