Proposed salvage operation first step toward ‘eco-campus’

The first step in a plan to create what has been termed an “eco-campus” at the old U.S. Steel site in Joliet will go to a vote next week.

The plan is moving ahead as Mayor-elect Terry D’Arcy prepares to take office after a campaign that included a pitch for a drastically different option for the site.

D’Arcy, who takes office in two weeks, said Friday that he still plans to pursue the concept of a youth sports complex with potential hotel and restaurant development on the Collins Street property.

“I’d like to have the opportunity to do what I talked about, which is the sports complex for that site,” he said.

Outgoing Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, meanwhile, views the industrial plans now set for the site as the last of a long to-do list.

“There were a number of things that when I took office were on people’s wish lists, but that I wanted to get done as mayor,” O’Dekirk said, noting that his predecessor, Tom Giarrante, also tried to put the U.S. Steel site back to use. “For me, this is important.”

What happens Tuesday is a City Council vote on a proposed auto-salvaging operation on the other side of the Des Plaines River from the U.S. Steel site.

The shredding operation would strip batteries, plastics and other parts from vehicles. Those parts would be ferried across the river to be recycled at the so-called eco-campus on the east side of the Des Plaines, according to the city plan.

D’Arcy said he believes the proposed salvage facility could operate without the proposed recycling operation on the other side of the river.

A scrap metal recycling plant already has been operating since 2015 at the site, which is not in city limits and is located on Industry Avenue off Broadway Street. Property owner One Industry Holdings has petitioned for the annexation of 29 acres to Joliet with industrial zoning that will allow for the expansion of the salvaging operations.

“This property has long been associated with Joliet’s industrial history,” according to a city staff memo on the proposal from One Industry Holdings. “It was home to the Phoenix Horseshoe Co. from the 1860s to the 1950s as well as to the manufacturing of other steel products for various industries through 2013.”

The history of steel operations going back to the 19th century on the other side of the river also makes it most suitable for industrial redevelopment, O’Dekirk said during the campaign and again Friday.

The Collins Street site was labeled a brownfield when local economic development officials unsuccessfully sought federal funding for cleanup in 2005.

“My understanding is that remediation of the property would take 20 to 30 years,” O’Dekirk said.

O’Dekirk has called the D’Arcy proposal “not serious” and questioned whether the former steel mill grounds should be used for youth sports.

“I would not encourage young people to play on it,” he said.

But D’Arcy said he is serious.

D’Arcy announced the idea at a town hall-style meeting during the campaign, saying friend and former White Sox player Bo Jackson approached him with the concept. Jackson has a Lockport-based business that has developed youth sports complexes elsewhere.

“I think a lot of people are excited about having a sports complex on that location on the east side of the river,” D’Arcy said.

He has even questioned the suitability of renewed industrial operations on the Collins Street site, which D’Arcy considers part of downtown Joliet.

D’Arcy’s campaign in part was devoted to creating a sense of excitement in the city. A sports complex with hotels and restaurants on Collins Street would fit the theme. Where it could be done is another matter.

O’Dekirk said the city has struggled for years to put the abandoned steel site to use.

“There has been a lot of effort,” O’Dekirk said, highlighting trips to U.S. Steel aimed at persuading the company to let go of the property. “In the eight years that I’ve been mayor, there were different buyers that came to the table. But U.S. Steel wasn’t willing.”