Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

All right.

We're now called to session the Land Use and Economic Development Committee on 05/04/2026 at 03:30 here in the chambers for a special meeting. We have a roll call.

Councilwoman Ibarra? Here. Councilman Madryn? Here. Councilman Cardenas.

Here. First can we start off with a motion for approval of the minutes. It's easy to review the minutes.

So moved.

Second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Next, we'll see if there are any citizens to be heard on agenda items? Seeing none, we'll move on. We're going start off with our first agenda, TMP 9,751, resolution to authorize a TIF incentive agreement with Matisse Events LLC at 113 North Ottawa. Thank you.

Good afternoon, committee members. Paulina Martinez, economic development director. So what we brought forward for you today is a request for a five year forgivable loan for the Matisse project. This would go towards covering the installation of the required sprinkler and fire suppression system that he needs to complete the project. This is the last big ticket item.

We are making a recommendation of $79,500 So essentially, every year that he stays open for those five years of the term, 20% of the ground would be forgiven. There would be a lien filed against the property, and we would be working very closely with Mr. Matisse to make sure that everything goes smoothly. He's been super cooperative so far. This is kind of like a last resort for him, but this is something that would help him get over the hump and hopefully open his business by June, is my understanding. Joe, is there anything that you want to add about the project?

Yeah, you know, I was talking earlier.

If you could.

Joey has been absolutely fantastic. Had I been in any other municipality in my authority, thrown him out already. This has been a three year labor of love and we're in the homestretch here. We've got the transformers up for electricity so we should have some electricity by the end of the week. Right now we're starting some painting. We were hoping not to have to sprinkle the sanctuary after talking with code enforcement, being that we're no longer a church now, we're in event space, it's got to be sprinkled, it just added some extra cost that we just need a little bit help with. I've put blood, sweat and tears into this, I've got nothing left, so if you can help me, it would be great. I might be sleeping on your couches at some point.

Any questions?

Didn't quite hear, was it going to be 20% a year that would be forgiven? Is that what you said for the five years?

For every year that he stays open during that five year term, correct, 20%.

Right, so hopefully it will all be forgiven.

Correct. That's the goal.

We'd like to be here a very long time. We'd like to have you. We want to have you. Let me rephrase that. Yes.

It has seriously been such an eyesore there for a good number of years. I I'm I welcome something there that's gonna be nice like this, and all the improvement that they put into it is only gonna uplift that area of Joliet. So I'm definitely in favor of this for that reason. Cannot wait.

We're gonna

have a

nice outdoor patio section that we'd like to leave open to the community during the day because we're not gonna be doing any events during the afternoon. So we'll have concerts and things in the evening, weddings and the weekends. But during the day, I've been talking with some of the other restaurants, say, hey, if wanna leave QR codes, people wanna order food and sit on our patio. Oh, wow. Yeah. Because when you're in Downtown Joliet, if you wanna sit outside on a day like today and have lunch, there's not a ton of options. So we're gonna leave that space open with the community. We wanna be very involved with the other businesses and with the city.

Awesome. Several can use. Thank you.

How about windows? I know way before you took it over, lots of the windows had been damaged, taken out, lots of them were stained glass. I don't know if that's All a

the windows on each side have been replaced. We're gonna keep the stained glass in ceiling, in the front. But the stained glass, glass, we actually checked with the historical society and with the archdiocese. They had taken all the stations of the cross and they're actually in the Will County Archdiocese Building now. They took them and relocated them. So the stained glass that was there wasn't worth keeping. But we kept all the architectural framework and just reglazed everything. So all the glass has been repaired.

Gotcha.

We may put some stained glass in in the future as we get a little more money, but for now, we will just clear glass. Thank you.

Thank you for doing this in the city of Joliet.

It's really been a pleasure. I've worked in other municipalities and other businesses I've owned. Joliet is my partner.

Thank you.

And your

goal of opening is?

Well, wanna we have all construction in the next four or five weeks, and then however long it takes to get occupancy from there with the city. Hopefully by June.

This summer, yeah.

We wanna be open very Very, very soon, yeah.

Good.

My son graduates from high school and he needs a space for a party so I gotta be done soon.

I think I know the Well perfect

yeah, I just want to say thank you for choosing Joliet and we're excited so can we get a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Alright, motion to approve. Thank you.

Thank you. You.

You guys

have wonderful rest Enjoy

the game.

Thank you.

Next we will move on to TMP 9,846 resolution amending and authorizing the execution of an amended and restated development agreement with Cullen and Joliet LLC for the Rock Run Crossing development project area.

Evening. Kevin Singh, Director of Finance. Gonna give a brief presentation to go over some of the highlights of what we're doing with this amended agreement. So first, just want to go through Rock Collection or Rock Run Crossings. It's 300 acres at the intersections of the Interstates 55 And 80.

Part of the original development included a new interchange at Interstate 55 and Route 59. The site is currently home to Hollywood Casino, nearly 900,000 square feet industrial of Chipotle. There are 264 apartments that are under construction with an expected completion of August, as well as a Ricky Rockets gas station that is under construction. So why amend the agreement? The amended agreement allows or allowed the city to rebalance our risk of the original $100,000,000 bond that financed infrastructure at the site.

As part of this agreement, our risk is being reduced by over $16,000,000 We're also able to add requirements for performance and penalties for nonperformance as it relates to attracting retailers to the site. The new agreement improves the mix of retail and restaurants to make it a popular dining and shopping for the region. Additionally, tax revenue is projected to be higher as part of this new agreement at $234,000,000 for the city of Joliet between now and 2044. The agreement also allows us to secure a major anchor tenant for the site, allows the rest of the pieces to come into place. So Dick's House of Sport is a unique experimental sports and recreation concept complete with sports fields, climbing walls, and escalators that will serve as the anchor tenant and additional focus for community outreach.

DICK'S House of Sport will attract big name, high quality national retailers and partners. We'll also attract visitors from across the region and will boost long term tax revenue for the city. Just wanna play a a

Those names are Mick

believe me.

Okay. Was like, I never heard of that before. Sorry.

So we'll set move on. There's gonna be a much larger, longer presentation at the council meeting tomorrow. This video was from that. So there was a lot of words on the slides. The developer is going to be going through those slides in more detail.

So with the Dix House of Sport and this additional retail, this is a concept of the site, future site plan and what would be at the site. I wanted to point out that the developer does expect 300,000 square feet of new retail to start construction later this year. They're also in negotiations with over 50 national and regional retailers that are contingent on the Dick's House of Sport. So for the financial requirements, the first part is we wanted to make sure the city was protected. We did this by tying the payment of incentives to the opening of stores, binding contracts in the form of leases, and the commencement of vertical construction.

We also have things in there. Should the project get delayed, the incentive is reduced annually starting in 2028. It's also important to note that the payment of incentives will come from taxes from this site, not from the city as a whole. We also have requirements that retails also to perform at a sales number of $350 per square foot. As part of the financials and incentives, first part is we are repurposing money from the original GO bond to create a new bond payment or reserve.

This provides an additional safety net for the city. For incentives, the new incentive is structured on as a reimbursement and paid based on when taxes are generated. It also includes performance based incentives that are paid only when the project is successful. Those are what's referred to as developer notes. And then overall benefits of this agreement is that the development is going to perform at an accelerated pace, which means more revenue to the city.

In fact, $237,000,000 is expected to support city services and infrastructure. Then, of course, jobs. The site is expected to to create over 8,000 construction jobs with a total annual payroll for construction of $510,000,000 and 5,000 permanent jobs once it's open, generating over 200,000,000 in wages annually for the workers in the site. And then finally, the development will be a place where people from the region will go shopping and dining. And just to conclude, kind of a closing statement, with the agreement, Rock Run is collection is poised to be a regional destination for shopping and dining at the crossroads of America. That concludes my presentation. Kevin,

you had mentioned three ten acres in the very beginning. That is the total land available for development, including the apartments and Correct. The Correct.

It's everything you see on the screen outlined in this yellow.

Thank you. Question?

I just want to say regarding whether our residents will see this as a regional destination. My parents are both retired, and they travel to New Buffalo, Michigan and several other places. The weird thing is because they get comped out a room or something, they are not really literally going there to gamble. They're going there to shop. And they're going there to see what the malls have. And sorry, they love to go to different restaurants and stuff. So I definitely can see this being the same type of thing. I don't think that's out of reach at all.

Yeah, I would agree being that it's at the crossroads of America like I mentioned 55 and 80, the access to it is going to be from all over so the benefit that will Joliet will get like you said with the projections of two forty four million dollars by 2044 and tax revenue is going to be great. So to finally put something I know this project has been in process for a long time and to be able to have the opportunity to kind of redo the agreement and put us in a better situation to get this project finally done is exciting. So any other questions? For me.

And then just to recap, will be a longer presentation tomorrow with the Dick's House of Sport, the developer, myself and then we'll also have the experts at the city hire to help do the process available I'll for

make a motion to approve.

I'll second that motion.

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion to approve. Thank you. Thanks, Scott. Next.

This afternoon, I should say, I heard this advertisement, interview, I should say, out of Chicago Station for this lady who has a coffee shop, and she knows it needs to be more than and some spirits. And so I I think anybody in the city who has a coffee shop should consider coffee and spirits.

I don't know if you know anybody.

What to make that recommendation?

Can we do, like, dirty coffee? Isn't that what it's called? Dirty dirty coffee?

Think that was part of That's part of the deal?

This conversation. Well, that's I'll see if I can find an owner to talk to him about this.

All right. Any other new or old business?

Okay, yeah. I'm just going to put it out there. I've said it a lot of times over the last three years. I want a grocery store in District 5 on the East Side. And I've talked about it a lot. I actually kind of debunked the theory that the house rooftops don't exist. When we had a traffic count, I believe, Millsdale Road of a quarter of a million cars and trucks go by there in a three month period, we had that count. So, definitely, the people exist going back and forth to work, have to pick up something to eat both ways, you know, groceries to cook at home. And I just wanted to know if we could focus any time or energy effort on getting a grocery store in District 5. Even if we have to talk to the guy that put a grocery store on District 4.

On District 4, absolutely I think it's a great idea, have to keep putting it out there and hopefully keep doing what we're doing right as a city to entice these developers and our potential grocers to look at us and find us find our city attractive to say we want to go there, right? So, I know that our economic development team is doing great work and they're going to try to continue to do things to attract more businesses to come down here. So, I agree, we got to keep pushing, right?

Yeah, thank you.

No problem. So seeing no more public comments. No one here for public comment. I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye. Motion to adjourn. Thank you.

Thank you.