2 Kmarts Still Empty In Joliet, New Lenox

New Lenox and Joliet have a lot of commercial development taking place, but both Will County communities are also saddled with something bad. Both have a Kmart storefront in a high visibility area that continues to sit empty month after month. The pair of Kmarts have been vacant since January 2017. New Lenox's Kmart is right off Interstate 80 at the Maple Road exit. Joliet's Kmart is at Larkin Avenue and West Jefferson Street, the busiest intersection in the city.

The two empty storefronts are also a drain on each community's tax base, not to mention the obvious: both are eyesores. The properties are looking more rundown every day.

The collapse of the Kmart retail chain is one of the dilemmas of having a big box retailer in your community. On one hand, when business is booming, big box stores seem great. They generate lots of sales tax revenue. They create plenty of jobs. They are catalysts for other retailers or restaurants to gravitate nearby. Joliet's Kmart was a solid anchor on West Jefferson Street for decades, but those days are long gone, just like the ShowBiz Pizza Place that once operated next door to the Kmart on J-Street.

Complicating matters, city of Joliet economic development director Steve Jones told Patch last week, Kmart is still leasing the property on Jefferson Street through October. Once that lease expires, Jones said, he hopes the property owner can step up efforts to market the site for redevelopment.

"It's kind of in that in between period," Jones told Patch.

Jones said the site offers great potential for a medical facility, a restaurant or another retail outlet. Someone may want to pursue demolition. Others may want to subdivide the storefront or use the building as is.

"It's tough to re-purpose them," Jones said. "Someone may just want to start from scratch. Right now, Kmart is still technically controlling it right up through October."

Being a realist, Jones doubts the city will see any major activity or movement with the Kmart property until next year, at the earliest.

On the positive side, it's in a prime location, Jones said. "Jefferson and Larkin has the highest traffic count than anywhere else in this city," he added.

New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann echoed similar sentiments regarding his empty Kmart.

"A lot of communities are faced with some of those big box stores that have gone out," Baldermann explained last week. "Fortunately for us it's really been limited to the Kmart there off of I-80. It's such a large corporation. There have been some developers that have been interested in it. They've run into some roadblocks. It's kind of difficult to get through all of that corporation mess with the number of stores that they have closed nationally to be able to redevelop that site."

Baldermann went on to say, "I think it's going to take a while for them to get through some of those entanglements. As far as the village is concerned, we certainly want to see the right type of development up there. We've heard a couple of different ideas from some entertainment. You know, retail is not what it used to be. Box retail is not what it used to be and that's OK ... Realistically, I don't see that happening this calendar year. We hope so, we certainly would push for it, but we don't have anything that is that close."

Images taken last week by John Ferak, Editor of New Lenox and Joliet Patch