December 19, 2024
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Joliet legal battles over warehouse development emerge in stalled vote

Lawyers push back another court date on Friday

By Bob Okon
An aerial view of distribution centers for the NorthPoint group near the intersection of Noel Road and Illinois Route 53 on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024 in Elwood. NorthPoint is developing the Third Coast Intermodal Hub, a warehouse development of more than 2,000 acres stretching from Joliet to Elwood.

An aerial view shows distribution centers built by NorthPoint Development as legal battles continue over the project and its impact on the Joliet area. (Scott Anderson)

A legal chess match likely to have an impact on future warehouse development in Joliet continued Friday without an end in sight.

Lawyers appeared briefly in a Will County courtroom to push back to May 23 a status hearing on a lawsuit brought by the joint venture that built the Houbolt Road toll bridge over the Des Plaines River against the city of Joliet and NorthPoint Development.

It takes a scorecard to keep track of the lawsuits, the parties involved, and pending projects in play for future development of a section of Joliet that stretches south of the city to Elwood.

There are four pending lawsuits that involve the city, CenterPoint Properties, NorthPoint Development, and groups trying to stop NorthPoint from expanding warehouse development on the south end of Joliet.

Several buildings are under construction at the site of the new NorthPoint Compass Business Park along Route 53.

Development of one of three buildings constructed in Joliet by NorthPoinT Development is seen in this file photo. (Gary Middendorf - gmiddendorf@shawmedia.com/Gary Middendorf)

CenterPoint Properties, developer of the CenterPoint Intermodal Park that has made the Joliet area the largest inland port in the nation, is suing the city and rival developer NorthPoint Development.

CenterPoint is a partner in the Houbolt Road Joint Venture Partnership, which built the Houbolt Road bridge over the Des Plaines River after extensive collaboration with the city. But CenterPoint contends Joliet has endangered future success of the toll bridge through agreements made for the NorthPoint project.

NorthPoint wants to build its own massive warehouse development. But CenterPoint contends that NorthPoint plans, approved by the city of Joliet, rely on roads built by CenterPoint in ways that violate past agreements with the city.

The Joliet City Council on Tuesday tabled a vote that apparently was designed to test the waters on a pending CenterPoint Properties lawsuit against the city.

City Council members said little about the vote, and Mayor Terry D’Arcy declied to comment.

“We’re in settlement negotiations,” interim City Attorney Chris Regis said Friday. “We put it on the agenda to see if we could settle it that way.”

Joliet interim City Attorney Chris Regis (Gary Middendorf/The Herald-News)

Instead, the vote was tabled until the council’s meeting on May 7, another complication in the intricate goings-on between Joliet, CenterPoint and NorthPoint.

The vote calls for a council decision on a CenterPoint project first proposed in 2022 to build two warehouses, totaling nearly 1 million-square-feet each, near the intersection of Brandon and Schweitzer roads.

The City Council rejected the plan in 2022 at a time when CenterPoint had gone public with its opposition to the NorthPoint project.

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