Thorntons Collins Street Station Built In Record Time

JOLIET, IL — During the last week of March, a Wisconsin-based company that specializes in moving large buildings hauled Joliet's 1851 Casseday House away from the corner of Collins and Jackson Streets to an empty lot a few blocks away. Sixteen weeks later, a new Thorntons gas station and convenience store is almost ready to open on Joliet's east side.

The Casseday House represented 19th century life for Joliet. The Thorntons station brings Joliet into the 21st century.

Joliet Patch visited the new 4,000-square-foot business Friday and spoke with several of the contractors. They told Patch that the new Thorntons aims to open for customers on Tuesday, Aug. 4. The convenience store inside the new Thorntons includes a large beer cooler.

And talk about record time for construction work.

Jirsa Construction Company in East Dundee had a lead role in building the new Thorntons station on the grounds where one of Joliet's oldest houses stood. A Jirsa representative told Joliet Patch's editor Friday that "the city of Joliet's building department has been very helpful. They have been strict, but responsive."

The new Thorntons is important in several ways. First, one of the longstanding complaints from Joliet's east side residents is that gas prices are often as much as 40 to 50 cents more per gallon than at other gas stations on the city's west side.

Second, the Thorntons redevelopment signifies that Joliet's Collins Street corridor is one of the most robust business corridors in all of Joliet.

Collins Street has fewer empty lots, vacant restaurants and unoccupied professional offices than pockets of West Jefferson Street, for instance.

Third, the Collins Street Thorntons will mean that customers don't have to pull away after pumping their fuel. They can walk inside, drink beer and play video gambling machines.

The Joliet City Council, against the advice of Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, approved a special liquor license for Thorntons in January that will allow for the consumption of alcohol on the gas station's premises. The council granted Thorntons a Class B and C liquor license to allow on-site liquor consumption.

The council made the liquor license exception because Thorntons agreed to pay the costs to relocate the Casseday House. The 1851 limestone building was targeted for demolition as part of the Thorntons redevelopment, but Joliet historic preservationists, including Mary Ann Gannon, implored the council to save the Casseday House.

Gannon's efforts set the Thorntons construction project behind schedule by many months. Patch first reported about Thorntons' plans to build a gas station on Collins Street in August 2018.

The favorable votes for the Class C and B liquor licenses were: Jan Quillman, Pat Mudron, Sherri Reardon, Bettye Gavin and Don "Duck" Dickinson. Opposing the measure were Larry Hug, Mike Turk and Terry Morris. O'Dekirk, who only votes in cases of a tie, has said he opposed the special liquor license because he felt it set a terrible precedent for other Joliet gas stations.

In December, the Mudron 5 bloc approved a 3-cent per gallon gasoline tax increase for Joliet's fuel pumps. At that meeting, Gavin, the east-side council member, told the audience she usually goes to the Murphy's station in Lockport to buy her gas because it's often cheaper than buying gas on Joliet's east side where Gavin lives.