Basinger's Senor Tequila Property Is Public Nuisance

JOLIET, IL — The Joliet City Council is ready to get tough with the owners of Basinger's Pharmacy, four years after the company's plans to redevelop the empty Senor Tequila building into a new pharmacy and liquor store were approved by the city.

On Tuesday night, the City Council voted to declare 2219 West Jefferson St. a public nuisance. Even though the Council approved Basinger's redevelopment plans in early 2017, Basinger's never bulldozed the Senor Tequila building and never built its new pharmacy and liquor store, as the city had envisioned.

At Monday night's pre-council meeting, outgoing interim city manager Jim Hock informed the Council he was prepared to remove the public nuisance resolution from Tuesday night's agenda after a lawyer for Basinger's Pharmacy called the city Monday.

Hock said the lawyer for Basinger's suggested that his client now has secured the funds to finally move ahead with the redevelopment of the Senor Tequila property.

Hock said the lawyer for Basinger's preferred that Joliet remove the public nuisance vote from the meeting agenda for at least the next 30 to 60 days.

(Joliet Patch article continues below this photo.)

Interestingly, Hock told the Council that the Joliet Police Department SWAT team has been using the empty Senor Tequila building for training purposes from time to time.

At Monday's discussion-only meeting, City Councilman Mike Turk scoffed at the suggestion of removing the public nuisance resolution from Tuesday's meeting agenda.

Turk said that Basinger's has been playing these kinds of games with the city for years, every time someone puts the "heat" on them regarding their stalled development.

Turk told everyone he was willing to take the vote Tuesday on whether to declare the Senor Tequila site a public nuisance.

Back on Dec. 1, Joliet Patch's editor wrote an editorial column suggesting that the City of Joliet's constant state of dysfunction had contributed to the pockets of decay along West Jefferson Street, most notably the Senor Tequila property, which has become a magnet for drug addicts and transients to congregate and share needles in recent years. Efforts to revitalize some neighboring properties, including the empty Baker's Square restaurant, have failed.