New City Official Plans To Live In Downtown Joliet

JOLIET, IL - Last year, the Joliet City Council agreed to set aside up to $66,000 to fund a new position at City Hall. The position was intended to provide relief for the city's busy economic development director, Steve Jones. In recent weeks, Derek Conley started working as the city's new economic development specialist, working closely with Jones. A Carbondale native, Conley, 30, joins Joliet after working the past 18 months in a similar role in Aurora.

There are a lot of parallels between Aurora and Joliet, the state's second and third largest cities respectively, Conley said. One of his key tasks is to work with existing businesses on retention and expansion as well as recruiting new employers and retail outlets to make Joliet a top consideration in terms of relocating.

Conley is enthused about the city's downtown, particularly as he looks across the street from Joliet's City Hall where construction of the towering 10-story Will County Courthouse is well underway this summer.

Conley foresees the new courthouse will entice even more businesses and shops to locate nearby. Last year, the downtown saw the grand opening of Joliet Junior College's new culinary arts campus across from the Chicken-N-Spice. Meanwhile, Harrah's Casino & Hotel is celebrating its 25th anniversary downtown and recently held a job forum proclaiming, "business is great we're hiring."

Joliet's performing arts and music scene has been stronger of late, at the Rialto Square Theater and The Forge, downtown Joliet's live music venue that opened in April 2017.

"Joliet has a lot of activity going on, and that's one of the things that drove me to Joliet," Conley told Joliet Patch last week. "The retail market is pretty strong, doing well."

Moving forward, Conley wants to make sure Joliet does a better job of marketing itself so that prospective companies, employers or retail outlets put Joliet at the top of their short list of possibilities.

"I want to be that first point of contact as new businesses or companies look to Joliet, and that it's up to me to give that pitch. We need to kind of market ourselves," he said.

Additionally, Conley told Patch, "I do plan to move to downtown Joliet. I love the atmosphere being created. You have two Metra lines, Amtrak ... in my opinion there's plenty of coffeeshops and restaurants also."

Conley said he's been working with Noe Patino, who recently acquired one of the large commercial office buildings along North Ottawa Street, the one across from the city's parking garage. A new sign just appeared on top of that building alerting people the structure is now available for leasing.

Across the street, The Tomczak Law Group plans to move into the old Liebermann's Jewelers Building in the coming months. Attorney Jeff Tomczak bought that building last year.

Oftentimes, Conley noted, "it looks like economic development is a slow process. It takes time, but I do believe downtown Joliet and Joliet in general are going in the right direction."

Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor