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Joliet Rising: The foundation for renewed prosperity was built on diversification and expansion

Joliet Rising Cover
John Randolph
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WUIS/Illinois Issues

Two decades ago Joliet faced an economic crisis.

A national depression hammered industry and related businesses, and layoffs pushed the local unemployment rate near 25 percent, the highest of any municipality in the country. City Hall ran late on health insurance premiums for its own employees. And the housing market hit bottom. In 1982, only 16 homes were built in this city southwest of Chicago.

"Things got so bad then that they could only issue us one bullet," says Joliet Mayor Arthur Schultz, a police lieutenant at the time.

Today, Schultz is presiding over Joliet's renaissance.

The signs are everywhere. Over the past 10 years, the city's population has increased from 76,836 to 106,221, making it the third-fastest-growing community in the Chicago metropolitan area. And Joliet is in the money. In fact, the city hit the jackpot with the arrival of two riverboats, the Empress Casino in 1992 and Harrah's in 1993, which so far have generated more than $200 million in gaming revenues. Town leaders have poured millions into infrastructure improvements, frozen tax levies for seven of the past nine years and eliminated the municipal debt. And last fall, the City Council approved a $55.3 million economic development program that calls for a minor league baseball stadium, an outdoor aquatics complex, a new library branch and a history museum. These amenities are scheduled to open next year. The plan is to pay them off in 2003.

But ground was broken for this revitalization in the darkest times. The foundation for renewed prosperity was built on economic diversification and geographic expansion. And some lucky timing.

The casinos, which the state authorized to help down-and-out river towns, played a significant role in Joliet's turnaround. Throughout much of the 20th century, this city's economy was concentrated in heavy industry, a state prison, steel and stone quarries. These days, tourism and service-oriented jobs generate enough sales tax dollars to rival gaming as a revenue source.

Caterpillar was the biggest employer a couple of years ago, with 3,000 workers. But it was the only industrial company among the city's top 10 employers, which features Harrah's and the Empress, respectively the third- and fourth-biggest employers. As for tourism-related revenues, Joliet received about $30 million from gaming last year and collected another $15.6 million from sales taxes. Property taxes, by comparison, generated $10.8 million.

Joliet
Credit John Randolph
Joliet

  Population shifts throughout the region had a hand, too, in this city's rebirth. In the late 1980s, Joliet launched an annexation push to the west. It was a smart move. Over the following decade, about 7,600 new homes were built on the city's west side, in part because Joliet had the good fortune to be in the path of development spreading beyond Aurora and Naperville, which are located to the north of Joliet. Last year, a record 1,256 new single-family homes were built in Joliet.

But city officials say that isn't the whole story. "Some of our success is because we were in the middle of growth," says Joe Shetina, a Joliet councilman since 1975. "We haven't done it all. But we created an atmosphere or environment that was conducive to bringing in business and that brings in homes and that brings in all the things that go with it."

In short, Joliet moved to maximize its luck. In 1990, six months after the state authorized riverboat gambling, community leaders put the final touches on a revitalization plan that had been in the works for some time. Their idea was to redevelop Joliet's downtown, where aging buildings and vacant storefronts surrounded the historic 1920s-era Rialto Square Theatre. They envisioned a retail and entertainment district, including a hotel, a convention or conference center and public spaces along the Des Plaines River.

They are getting there. They expect three projects - a hotel that is being renovated into apartments, a comedy club and a baseball stadium - to bring several hundred thousand more people downtown. Joliet officials say that most of the 2.8 million people who went through Harrah's in 1999, for example, were visitors. A new parking garage designed with storefronts on the street level is ready for businesses to move in. And a convention center is another project Joliet officials might pursue within a few years.

But it was a bit of a gamble. The City Council caused a stir in 1992 when it loaned each casino $1 million in seed money to help the boats with infrastructure needs. But riverboats have turned out to be a good bet. Both casinos repaid the loans within a year of launching their boats.

"When riverboat gaming came along, it was a perfect match for the [downtown redevelopment] plan," says Bob Herrick, who has spent a decade with the Joliet/Will County Center for Economic Development. "But it came long after the community started digging itself out by developing an economic development plan."

And that plan rested, at least in part, on attracting visitors. For starters, Joliet used gaming money to pay for decorative lighting and streetscape improvements. And that helped lure more private investment. Harrah's built a new hotel at its downtown site in 1999 and is undergoing a $70 million expansion this year. The Empress opened a hotel in 1998. Both hotels helped to double Joliet's overnight accommodations in the last half of the 1990s.

City leaders spruced up their marketing campaign, too. In an effort to shed Joliet's image as a prison town, they entered the All-America City contest in 1999 and 2000, becoming a finalist but not one of the 10 winners. In 1999, the City Council voted for image over cash when it annexed a site where a NASCAR-backed group has built a 75,000-seat racetrack. The facility might generate $300,000 a year in tax revenue, a drop in the bucket for the city, but it will attract the national attention of race fans and the media. The track, adjacent to a three-year-old drag strip, will host its first race July 14. Between the race track and the drag strip, Joliet will host several televised events each year.

Meanwhile, a group of entrepreneurs that includes many of the former owners of the Empress has signed a lease on a stadium that is expected to accommodate 6,675 baseball fans. The group, which has launched a team nickname contest, has been awarded an expansion franchise in the independent Northern League for the 2002 season.

Joliet will spend approximately $25 million to build the ballpark, with the hope that its downtown location will spark further economic development. Mayor Schultz had been looking for a team for the past seven years, but the city finally got attention when officials began talking last spring about building a stadium. The City Council just awarded a $16.6 million construction contract and work is well underway.

Joliet
Credit John Randolph
Joliet

Business leaders believe the stadium, the track and, yes, the boats can turn Joliet into an entertainment destination. And they believe the city will benefit from a couple of other lucky breaks: the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, the joint state and federal project to convert to public use the old Joliet Arsenal. Located about 10 miles south of downtown just beyond the racetrack and drag strip, the arsenal straddles Illinois Highway 53 and encompasses parts of unincorporated Will County and small towns.

The U.S. Forest Service opened the 15,189-acre tallgrass prairie on the site nearly five years ago. The cemetery opened in 1999, and, with 1,448 burials by last October, it was the fourth-busiest cemetery for an opening year among those in the national system. At 982 acres, it is larger than Arlington National Cemetery and could eventually become the resting place of 400,000 U.S. veterans and family members.

As part of the arsenal redevelopment project, plans also are in place to build a landfill on a 450-acre site and two industrial parks. Construction of the first park is underway. CenterPoint Properties is spending $650 million on that site, which is expected to take at least a decade to build.

Though the arsenal is not in Joliet, city officials supported redevelopment of the area.

"You have a pro-growth City Council," Herrick says. "And since those days in the recession, it has wanted to improve the quality of life, improve the image and show that Joliet is a great place to live. In the '80s, the community was trying to survive. I don't think anybody would have guessed that you would see casino gaming and a NASCAR track and a minor league baseball stadium in Joliet. That would have seemed like a wild dream."

Joliet
Credit John Randolph
Joliet

In fact, city officials believe tourism is their future. Baseball fans might come from 20 miles away or more because Northern League rivals will include the Schaumburg Flyers and a team from Gary, Ind. Those visitors might stay for dinner. Many NASCAR fans would likely have to spend the night. And that will mean more dollars in Joliet's coffers. 

Schultz, who has been mayor since 1991, envisions even more growth for Joliet, which now ranks the 7th largest Illinois city, up from 9th in 1990. "When the next census comes out, I'm looking forward to being the 5th biggest city," Schultz says. "Over the next five to 10 years, we will look at getting more development, keeping unemployment down and having good, clean family entertainment. I think our best days are ahead." 

Ken O'Brien reports on the city of Joliet as a free-lance writer for the Chicago Tribune.

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