Two downtown Joliet restaurants get $85,519 in city grants

The city of Joliet this week approved the biggest grants so far in a program aimed at supporting downtown businesses amid Chicago Street construction.

The City Council on Monday voted 8-1 to approve $85,519 for two restaurants after a lengthy discussion of the program and one council member’s claim it was “not fair” to support downtown businesses when other businesses around town were affected by city street projects.

Others, however, said the downtown businesses eligible for the grant have been uniquely affected by a complete shutdown of a section of Chicago Street for both street improvements and construction of a new city square.

“The city square design is a very specific area, and those businesses are pretty well disabled at this point,” Councilwoman Suzanna Ibarra said.

The City Council on Monday approved $52,771 for Cut 158 Chophouse and $32,748 for Juliet’s Tavern.

Both restaurants are part of the Arkas Restaurant Group headed by Bill Dimitroulas.

The Arkas group also includes the Mousa Greek Tavern, which received a $9,024 grant from the program last year. The latest grants bring to $94,543 the total city funds provided to Dimitroulas’s downtown restaurants.

The city so far has provided $150,700 in grant funding to eight businesses.

The biggest recipient until this week was Kula’s Jewelry and Loan, which received $20,664.

Councilman Larry Hug noted the share of the money going to one business owner and the small section of the city eligible for the grants while “tens of millions of dollars” of street construction is being done around town.

“It’s just not fair,” Hug said. Hug was the one no vote against the two restaurant grants.

“I didn’t support it to begin with, and I still don’t support it,” Hug said of the program.

Mayor Terry D’Arcy said the grant program was created so downtown would not lose the businesses that surround the city square once the project is done.

Construction started in August and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

D’Arcy also pointed to the amount of tax dollars the city is getting from the downtown businesses, saying, “The amount that we are reinvesting in these businesses is less than what they’ve provided to our city.”

Sixteen businesses are eligible for the grant program.

The city provides up to 50% of a business’s revenue loss that can be attributed to the downtown construction. The amount available to a single business is capped at $100,000.

Economic Development Director Paulina Martinez told the council that businesses are required to submit to the city the same sales reports that are sent to the state when applying for the grant funding.

“We compare 2024 sales to 2023 sales to make sure we could see the difference from one year to the next,” Martinez said.

The downtown grant program was approved in December as business owners pleaded for support. There was no public opposition.

But Councilman Joe Clement said he has since heard from the owner of a Plainfield Road pizza restaurant that was “decimated” by a construction project that cut off access to his business at the intersection of Wilcox Street for up to nine months.

“It was closed – just like Chicago Street," Clement said. “No one was driving through there.”

Clement is urging the city to make the same grant funding available to Big Chill and Grill, the Plainfield Road restaurant.

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