Joliet turns down 1st Choice car dealership again

The Joliet City Council this week rejected a Center Street auto dealer’s attempt to expand his business.

It was the second time in two years that the council turned down 1st Choice Auto Sales' attempt to get approval to use a lot it owns at 115 N. Center St. to store cars.

Opposition has come from a tavern that sits between the 1st Choice used-car dealership and the empty lot.

Attorney Nathaniel Washburn, representing the tavern at the City Council meeting Tuesday, said 1st Choice’s proposed use for the vacant lot posed a safety hazard but did not specify what the hazard might be.

“I don’t see a hazard issue. That’s a stretch,” council member Suzanna Ibarra said, adding that she visited the site before the vote.

Council member Jan Quillman said: “I drive by there all the time. It’s pretty dangerous.”

Quillman and Ibarra were on opposite ends of a 4-4 vote on the special-use permit that 1st Choice Auto needs to use the empty lot for car storage.

The tie vote means that the permit will not be issued.

Joining Ibarra in the yes vote were Mayor Terry D’Arcy and council members Cesar Cardenas and Cesar Guerrero.

Joining Quilman in the no vote were council members Pat Mudron, Sherri Reardon and Joe Clement.

One council member, Larry Hug, was not at the meeting, which led to the possibility of a tie vote.

1st Choice Auto is owned by Bujar Shabani, whose two sons work with him at the business.

“We are absolutely not endangering anybody else’s business,” his son, Valon Shabani, said to the council.

The tavern was once a popular Joliet night spot when it operated as O’Charley’s Irish Pub. But it is now on its second owner since O’Charley’s closed in 2021. When the council turned down the special-use permit in January 2023, the tavern was named Mid Town Tap.

The 1st Choice Auto dealership has been in business since 2018, and Shabani has owned the empty lot since 2021.