Joliet committee OKs new MyGrain lease

A Joliet City Council committee on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a new lease designed to help MyGrain Brewing Co. through a period when it will be virtually surrounded by construction.

The brewpub in city-owned Union Station would get one year of free rent and new terms designed to avert an unexpected $18,000 tax bill.

“I really do respect their commitment to our downtown,” said council member Larry Hug, chairman of the Economic Development Committee, before the 2-0 vote to recommend the new lease to the full council for approval.

MyGrain, which opened in 2017, will be forgiven its $84,000 rent next year under the arrangement.

The brewpub is operating under rent credits already in which it pays no rent for 10 years in exchange for about $3 million in investments made to renovate the space. But the new lease adds another year of rent credit for MyGrain.

Joliet economic development specialist Derek Conley said MyGrain’s renovations have made “a huge difference” in the space it occupies in Union Station.

“We’re very happy from the city perspective to see this building utilized again with a restaurant in it,” Conley said.

MyGrain occupies part of the first floor.

The brewpub currently is dealing with utility construction on Jefferson Street that has disrupted beer garden business and made access difficult. Next year, the city will begin the Chicago Street reconnection project that will take out the main parking lot used by MyGrain customers. Also, construction is expected to start on a new bus station, a project that also will block access to parking.

The new agreement with MyGrain also changes a 10-year lease to a rolling two-year lease to avoid the front-loaded property taxes that Conley said neither the brewpub nor the city expected.

The brewpub faces an $18,000 tax bill because its taxes are calculated on a sliding system that puts the highest payments in the first years of the lease. Payments would be stabilized over the course of the lease in the new agreement.