Joliet Plaza Inn gets more time for renovation

Joliet Plaza Inn will get more time to continue renovations.

The Joliet City Council, for a second time, put off a vote on a proposed nuisance designation for the hotel at 4200 W. Jefferson St. after hearing a progress report on repairs.

“I was a little skeptical, but you guys have done a lot to clean up the outside,” council member Don Dickinson told a lawyer for the hotel at a council meeting Tuesday.

Attorney Raj Sanghvi said new owners who acquired the hotel in October have filled 10 30-foot dumpsters with debris as they make repairs. They have also hired an architect who is preparing plans to submit to the city.

The staff proposal to put the hotel on a public nuisance list could still come back to the council for consideration.

Director of Community Development Kendall Jackson said he wants time to review the hotel owners’ latest plans, develop a “reasonable timeline” for repairs, and reach a memorandum of understanding with the owners that outlines what needs to be done.

More than 220 building code violations were found in a Dec. 5 inspection leading to the first staff proposal to put Joliet Plaza Inn on the nuisance list. The council tabled a vote Jan. 7. Staff recommended a second time that the hotel be put on the nuisance list after another inspection Jan. 14 found only 36 of the violations had been fixed.

The hotel still has damage from a 2014 storm, and an entire wing has been closed. Forty rooms are still in use, but the pool has not been reopened since being shut down by the Will County Health Department in 2014.