Joliet gas station looks like last hope for elderly couple

The property appeared loaded with commercial promise when inherited by Susan and Allen Winter 16 yeas ago but has become a financial burden since.

The 2008 recession and other factors intervened to prevent potential development of an Olive Garden restaurant and Aldi grocery on the U.S. 30 site on the way to Louis Joliet Mall, the Winters said.

Now that the city of Joliet has approved a proposed gas station on the site, Susan, 79, and Alan, 91, look for proceeds from the sale to offset the financial misfortune they have had since getting the land.

“We thought we were going to be in a position that was going to lead us to a lot of money, and it just didn’t do that,” Susan said.

Instead, the Winters have had to meet a $15,000 annual property tax bill on the land as it has gone unsold, and they have had to borrow money in recent years to pay that.

The couple also lost money in a separate investment proposition that has contributed to the problems as they’ve grown older.

They have moved out of what Susan called their “dream home” into a Wilmington apartment as their financial situation worsened. And they have bills to pay related to the property that Allen believes will take up at least $100,000 of the money they get from selling the two acres.

The selling price for the land is $422,000, although the Winters will divide that with other family members included in the inheritance when they get it.

“We’re not going to splurge,” Allen said of their plans.

“Some of it is just to have the money so if we have to go into a nursing home or assisted living,” Susan said.

The Winters told their story to the Joliet City Council in what was a controversial vote over the gas station proposal. Neighbors from the Crystal Lawns subdivision on the other side of Route 30 were against the gas station, which will include gas pumps for trucks, packaged liquor sales, video gambling and carry-out food.

Alan Hareld, a Crystal Lawns resident, told the council that three subdivisions could be affected by the traffic, noise and commotion that the gas station will bring.

“What is their life going to be like?” he asked.

But Hareld choked back tears as he also expressed sympathy for the plight that the Winters faced.

Crystal Lawns is a subdivision of winding streets and tall trees where residents try to preserve some seclusion from the U.S. 30 traffic and commercial development on their border.

Years of waiting

Susan grew up on the site that had been her family’s home and lived there as the Crystal Lawns homes were being built. The land at one time was part of a farm. Susan’s mother, Ethel Snook, was the last to live in the two-story, wooden house that was torn down after her death in 2007.

Her father, Ralph Emerson Snook, died in 1992.

Even as she was growing up, Susan said, the mounting traffic on U.S. 30 had reached a point that her father had developed techniques for driving onto and off the highway to avoid getting into a collision.

The site now is bordered on the east by the Millenium Square commercial center, which at one time was going to be extended onto the Winters’ land. But expansion of the commercial center was stymied by the recession of 2008.

“We’re still afraid. We don’t count on anything.”

—  Susan Winters

To the west are trees and a small number of houses that real estate broker Bill Caton likened to “a wall” standing in the way of commercial development spreading from Louis Joliet Mall area.

“The site may as well be a mile away,” said Caton, a longtime friend of the Winters who has been the broker for the site.

Retail development requires a “synergy” that has not worked for development of the property, he said. The 2008 recession stopped the commercial boom that made development seem like a sure thing before then. And, the decline of Louis Joliet Mall since has not helped, Caton said.

“Gas stations don’t require a lot of synergy,” Caton said.

They require traffic. And, U.S. 30 provides an estimated 24,000 vehicles a day for potential gas station business, said Tom Osterberger, an attorney for the developer.

“This is where a gas station belongs,” Osterberger told the Joliet City Council.

One prospect before the gas station was Aldi, which came close to moving from their existing location closer to the mall, Allen Winter said. But Aldi instead chose to remodel the existing store on Hennepin Drive.

Olive Garden, which earlier this year opened a restaurant on a Joliet site along U.S. 30 but on the west side of Interstate 55, also was interested in their property, Allen said. But Olive Garden could not get the state to agree to a traffic light at the site.

One potential developer wanted to bring in Costco, which also built west of I-55.

Since the first plan to make the site part of Millenium Square failed with the 2008 recession, there have been nine contracts for potential development of the site.

“They all fell through,” Allen said. “Some of them lasted only three months, and they gave up.”

The Winters worry that something could still happen with the gas station plan, since the sale of the property has not closed yet.

“We’re still afraid,” Susan said. “We don’t count on anything.”