Harassment Suit May Sink Joliet Expansion

JOLIET, IL - Several Denver news media outlets reported this week that Victor Ahmed, the chief executive officer for Innovation Pavilion, is now facing a sexual harassment lawsuit. Ahmed operates the suburban Colorado company that has courted city of Joliet officials about expanding his operations into downtown Joliet. Denver's BusinessDen reported the civil lawsuit was filed last week in Denver District Court by Suzy Gutierrez, a 48-year-old mother of three. She claims Ahmed groped her breasts and put his hands underneath her dress on airplanes and in hotel bars, the Denver media outlet reported.

The article indicated Ahmed faces allegations of harassment and assault from multiple women. The headline in Colorado's BusinessDen reads, "Incubator Founder Accused By Two Of Sexual Assault."

“He thinks women who work for him are objects that can be marginalized,” Gutierrez said in an interview with BusinessDen on Tuesday, the online news agency reported.

To read the entire story in Denver's BusinessDen, go here. To read the story in the Denver Post which includes photos of Ahmed and the lawsuit plaintiff together, you can go here.

Given Ahmed's new legal troubles, the prospects of Innovation Pavilion coming to Joliet are less likely now than a couple weeks ago. Besides, it's been nearly a year since Ahmed addressed the Joliet City Council. There has been no major progress on his end in terms of moving ahead with building expansion plans in Joliet.

Last July, Joliet's City Council gave Ahmed a warm reception regarding his desire to open another of his innovation campuses in the city's downtown. Ahmed told the council he was attracted to the "Chicago metro area," but wanted to end up in a vibrant, growing city that has the ability to forge a public-private partnership to make his project work. We are not going to set up an operation in Chicago," he said at the meeting, which the Joliet Patch covered.

Afterward, Patch reported that the city agreed to provide Ahmed's Colorado investment group with city-owned land at no cost and up to $200,000 in financial incentives to defray the company's engineering and architectural design costs.

However, if the Innovation Pavilion project fizzled, for whatever reason, the $200,000 in proposed city incentives and also the land would remain in the city's control. The agreement was contingent upon Innovation Pavilion filing a formal building permit with Joliet's City Hall.

"The beauty is there is no risk to the city," Steve Jones, city economic development director, told the council last summer.

Joliet dangled two different parcels at Innovation Pavilion, one north of Harrah's near the Des Plaines River. The second was closer to Joliet Central High School, near the old Lyons Lumberyard.

For more about Innovation Pavilion, you can visit its website featuring Ahmed here.

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Image via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor