Joliet rejects liquor sales for gas station by the mall

Joliet has denied a liquor license for the Circle K Shell station near Louis Joliet Mall.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved Mayor Terry D’Arcy’s recommendation to deny liquor sales at the station, 3021 Plainfield Road.

The license for the Circle K Shell was denied as a new Speed Trek gas station expecting to offer both liquor sales and video gambling is being built nearby at 2665 Plainfield Road.

Deputy Liquor Commissioner Kevin Kelley told the City Council at a Monday workshop meeting that the denial for the Circle K Shell license was recommended because the police department “has had an extremely high number of calls for service.”

He said the station has generated 63 calls for service in the past 12 months.

The recommendation for license denial came from D’Arcy, who also serves as the city’s liquor commissioner.

The council vote at its regular meeting Tuesday was unanimous against liquor sales for the Circle K Shell.

Circle K Shell manager Jason Benoit attended the Tuesday meeting at which the council voted but did not discuss the matter.

Benoit said after the meeting that he did not know there would be a recommendation to deny the liquor license.

He said the station is likely to continue to pursue the license because customer inquiries about liquor sales are “the No. 1 question we get every single day.”

Benoit said he has been station manager since February and believes the frequency of calls for police service has declined.

“We’ve done our due diligence to try to change the narrative about the location,” he said.

The Circle K Shell is the only gas station in the immediate area of Louis Joliet Mall.

That is changing with the Speed Trek station under construction on the east end of the commercial district surrounding the mall.

Future neighbors of the Speed Trek station opposed the project, pointing to traffic and other potential problems that could come with a large gas station that also is providing fuel pumps for trucks and planning for liquor sales and video gambling.

But the council in August 2023 voted 9-0 for the new gas station.

An elderly couple who owned the property told the council that they had struggled for 17 years to sell it before the gas station project came along.