Joliet moving city staff into downtown Bays building

Joliet will move city utilities staff into a private building owned by real estate developer John Bays.

The lease approved by the City Council on Tuesday is the second real estate deal the city has made with Bays this year. Joliet in May sold its Scott Street parking deck to Bays.

Both deals were made without public bids. A city ordinance provides an exemption for sales and leases of property from the bidding process.

The lease with Bays for his remodeled Two Rialto Square Building, however, was tabled for two weeks after members of the City Council said other downtown building owners should have a chance to make the city an offer.

“If after reviewing the other options we still reach the same conclusion, then I vote aye,” council member Cesar Guerrero said as he added his vote to the 8-0 approval for the Bays deal.

The city will lease offices a rate of $4,167 a month for three years at a total of $150,000 in the building at 116 N. Chicago St. The engineering staff from the utilities department will move from City Hall, which city officials said no longer provided adequate workspace.

According to a staff memo on the lease, the city posted a “Request for Interest” and got responses from owners of buildings at 150 N. Scott St. and 71 N. Ottawa St. Those options did not meet the city’s needs, according to the memo, because of size, condition or inadequate parking.

Bays bought the Scott Street deck primarily so he could provide free parking to his downtown tenants. The deck is located near the Rialto building.

The sale of the 340-space parking deck at a price of $151,000 was held up when objections were raised to the lack of a bidding process. The city instead posted a notice of the pending sale but heard from no other interested buyers. The deck needed repairs estimated at $915,000 in a 2015 analysis.

Bays acquired the Rialto building in 2018 from the Will County Metropolitan Exposition and Auditorium Authority, which oversees the Rialto Square Theatre.

The authority held a bidding process for the sale of the office building but received only the bid from Bays, who paid $350,000.

The building, located next door to the Rialto Square Theatre, was put up for sale as tenants were moving out because of water damages caused by burst water pipes. The authority determined it was no longer able to maintain the building. Even before the water damage, attempts to fully lease the building had failed.

Bays has repaired the building, brought in tenants, and is developing the upper floors for apartments.

The Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry relocated its offices to the Two Rialto Square building in March.