Council OKs tentative tie-in to closed loop for Joliet Logistics

It took nearly two years to the date, but plans for continued development of the Joliet Logistics Park were approved on Tuesday.

It was on May 5, 2020 that the Joliet City Council turned down the developer’s bid to continue warehouse construction at the Route 53 site where it already has one warehouse.

The council at the time had discussed a moratorium on Route 53 warehouse construction outside of the NorthPoint Development project, which promises a closed-loop road network to limit semitrailer traffic on Route 53 and local roads.

Over the last two years, the council has adapted the Route 53 restriction to require Joliet Logistics Park to connect with the closed loop, although that, too, has an exemption linked to lawsuits that have slowed down the NorthPoint project.

The development agreement requires Joliet Logistics Park to be connected to NorthPoint’s closed-loop road network by June 30, 2025. It extends the requirement but only for one year if NorthPoint’s closed loop continues to be blocked in court.

In the meantime, trucks going in and out of Joliet Logistics Park have access to Route 53.

The closed loop depends on a bridge being built over Route 53 to connect warehouses east of the highway to the Joliet and Elwood intermodal yards west of the highway.

Joliet Logistics Park is located east of Route 53 at Millsdale Road.

Verus Partners plans to develop 150 more acres of the nearly 300-acre site for three buildings totaling up to 1.5 million square feet. The site now has a 490,000-square-foot warehouse previously built.

The council voted 6-2 for the plan with no votes from Bettye Gavin and Cesar Guerrero, who were also the only two votes against the NorthPoint project.

The only council comments before the vote came from Larry Hug.

“This was a unique situation,” Hug said, noting that the Joliet Logistics Park was started before the 2008 recession.

The developer, he said, came back to the city for approval of continued development “after we had made an unofficial commitment to doing whatever we can to keep things and try to bring things into that closed loop when it ultimately comes around.”

There never was a vote establishing a moratorium on warehouse development that depends on access to Route 53.

The city two years ago, however, also resisted another plan from NASCAR to develop unused land outside the Chicagoland Speedway for warehouses as officials pointed to its reliance on access to Route 53. NASCAR withdrew the plan before it went to a council vote and has not brought it back.