Joliet medical building planned at former Ford dealership site

A three-story medical building is planned for a Jefferson Street site last occupied by Ron Tirapelli Ford in the late 1990s.

The redevelopment of the nearly eight-acre parcel would add another touch of renewal to a Jefferson Street commercial corridor that is aging in some spots and being rebuilt in others.

Duly Health and Care, the suburban medical group that is the naming rights sponsor for the city stadium managed by the Slammers baseball team, is the prospective tenant for the building planned for 2000 W. Jefferson St.

The Joliet Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday will consider variances requested by GW Properties, which owns the site. GW wants to reduce required parking from 667 spaces to 450 and to reduce required loading spaces from four to two, according to a city staff report.

The reduced parking could create more space for landscaping, said Joliet Planning Director James Torri.

“They want to do a lot of green area and a lot of landscaping,” Torri said. “It could be a real attractive site.”

Much of Jefferson Street was developed from the 1950s through the 1970s as business expanded westward from downtown into shopping centers and office developments with more parking for customers but not much of the landscaping now standard in new development.

The Duly Health and Care building would be the latest example of a Jefferson Street location being transformed as original construction is replaced with a new development.

The building is just west of the Tony’s Fresh Market, which opened June 29 and is the anchor of a new shopping center. Tony’s is redeveloping the corner of Jefferson and Larkin Avenue, which had been occupied by a Kmart store from the 1960s until it closed in 2016.

Just a couple of blocks west of the Duly site, Basinger’s Pharmacy is building a new store after demolishing a building that had been a restaurant since the 1950s.

Duly plans to open the new building in 2024 if it gets the necessary approvals, spokeswoman Molly McMillen said.

She listed a dozen medical services that would be provided at the site, including primary care, a cardiac evaluation center and general surgery.

“We are reimagining health care, which will not only support the local economy but also increase access to a full spectrum of quality health care services for patients using this location and other Duly Health and Care sites that are nearby,” McMillen said in an email.

McMillen would not say whether Duly plans to leave other locations it now has in Joliet but said “we would be bringing some services together at this location.”

Like the Hawk Chevy dealership across the street, the former Ford dealership on Jefferson was built at a time when car dealerships were moving west out of downtown for more space. Tirapelli left the site for space closer to Interstate 55 at its present Shorewood location.

The former dealership building was torn down in the 2000s. Hawk has used some of the space since for vehicle storage.