New Lenox Buys Papa Joe's Property On Route 30

NEW LENOX, IL — The village of New Lenox has high hopes that its purchase of the former Papa Joe's Italian Restaurant property will spark interest from commercial investors and developers. Last week, the village agreed to spend $735,000 to acquire the bulldozed parcel at 400 West Maple Street. The lot is between the Taco Bell restaurant and BMO Harris Bank of New Lenox.

Patch reported in February 2017 that Les Brothers, which also owns Williamson's Restaurant and Bar, 1490 W. Maple St., bought the former Papa Joe's pizzeria property with the vision to reopen it as Les Brothers.

Mayor Tim Baldermann told Patch last week that the plans to renovate the inside of the building became problematic for the Les family, who eventually decided to tear down the business. The Les family's plans to open a restaurant at the site never panned out.

Now, the village believes that it can attract something positive to the busy Route 30 corridor. The land behind the former restaurant site belongs to the park district, he added.

"We're hoping to assemble a nice desirable property on Route 30 that we could flip to a private developer," Baldermann said, explaining that the land behind the former restaurant encompasses roughly 2 acres.

The mayor sees great potential given that this property is near the Village Commons.

"We've got 90 days to close on the property," he said. "We're already talking to private developers about the piece."

And because the village will own the parcel, "we can have some say in what goes in there. We have some control," Baldermann explained.

As far as a time frame goes, "it will move as quickly as private developers can make it move," the mayor added.

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