Starbucks Restaurant Planned For Pier 1 Imports Site

JOLIET, IL — If you were thinking the Joliet area just does not have enough Starbucks restaurants, then here's some good news for you.

The empty Pier 1 Imports store near the Louis Joliet Mall along Route 30 is expected to be torn down to make way for a new Starbucks Restaurant. The proposed Starbucks at3064 Plainfield Road would offer a drive-thru window.

The business redevelopment is on the agenda for Tuesday's 6:30 p.m. Joliet City Council meeting. Starbucks is seeking a special use permit from the city to operate a drive-thru window.

This marks the second proposed Starbucks construction project in Joliet since last fall.

In October, the Joliet City Council approved plans to build a Starbucks on one of the outlots of the North Ridge Plaza along Larkin Avenue, near the future Vasa Fitness center that is now slated to open this coming fall.

So far, however, construction for the Larkin Avenue Starbucks has yet to get underway.

If the Starbucks proposed for the Pier 1 property moves forward, the Starbucks will be next to the future Raising Cane's chicken fingers.

Joliet approved plans for the Raising Cane's drive-thru window in February.

Raising Cane's has acquired the empty Diamand's Family Restaurant property and plans to tear down the popular sit-down restaurant that closed at the time of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 and never reopened.

City officials told Joliet Patch that demolition of the Diamand's may happen this summer and that Raising Cane's wants to open before the end of the year.