Private group proposes new use for old courthouse

A local business group hopes to redevelop the old Will County Courthouse for office space, dining and events.

The plan, which also proposes a rooftop bar and a boutique hotel, faces challenges since the County Board voted nearly three years ago to demolish the building.

But it’s still standing, and Courthouse Square Partners contends it’s better and less expensive to reuse the building than to tear it down.

The downtown Joliet courthouse, built in 1969, evokes mixed responses from people in the community, some of whom view it as ugly because of its stark appearance and concrete structure typical of the Brutalist architecture of its day.

But other such buildings across the country have been repurposed and adapted to modern tastes, said Hudson Hollister, one of the three partners in Courthouse Square Partners.

“Brutalism is not popular with everybody,” Hollister said. “But it is part of our history. Part of people’s perception of this building is due to that it’s never been properly maintained. It’s never been properly lit.”

Hollister said people’s perceptions may also be influenced by community regret over the demolition of the ornate 19th-century courthouse that it replaced.

“If we tore down this building, we would be making the same mistake we made in 1969,” Hollister said, referring to the demolition of the predecessor courthouse.

The proposal sent to the county on Monday describes the courthouse as “the region’s most significant example of mid-20th century architecture, styles now gaining new appreciation around the world. In 1969, the county chose to demolish its historic 1887 courthouse building, whose Beaux Arts architecture was at the time seen as outdated and ugly. That decision is now almost universally regretted.”

Hollister runs the technology company HData Inc. with an office in Union Station, the former Joliet train station repurposed for private use and located near the courthouse.

Also in Courthouse Square Partners, which was formed for the courthouse project, are Damon Zdunich, a partner in the group that has converted the former Diocese of Joliet property into the Bishop’s Hill Winery, and Nathaniel Hollister, an architect with Goettsch Partners in Chicago and co-owner of Two-Mile Coffee shops.

Hudson Hollister and Zdunich were unsuccessful candidates for Joliet City Council in 2021 and 2019, respectively. Hudson and Nathaniel are brothers and Joliet natives, although Nathaniel now lives in Chicago.

The group seeks a public-private partnership in which Courthouse Square Partners would lease the property and pay the cost of redevelopment.

The public-private lease arrangement is modeled after other redevelopment projects involving public buildings, Hudson Hollister said. It also would give the county the right to take the building away from the group if it failed to meet lease conditions and maintain the property.

The proposal includes maintaining the public plaza outside the courthouse and the Will County Civil War Monument in the plaza.

The county would have first right to available office space.

Hollister took heart from a Tuesday meeting of the County Board Capital Improvements Committee when the committee did not advance a timetable for demolition of the courthouse.

But Committee Chairman Herbert Brooks Jr. said the timetable was only up for discussion. More information is needed before a timetable can be set, and no vote was planned on Monday, Brooks said. The matter will be taken up again at the committee’s next meeting Feb. 1.

“I’m very interested in hearing what the Hollister group has to offer,” Brooks said.

But, he said, the County Board voted unanimously in April 2019 to demolish the building.

“The building is almost like someone on death row,” Brooks said. “I hate to say that. But right now, the resolution says demolish it.”

Putting the building to private use also could require state legislation, since the plat for the property sets it aside for public use.

Demolition, however, also faces issues.

Brooks said the cost of asbestos removal from the courthouse has yet to be determined. Also, there is a ComEd facility in the building that serves downtown that would have to be moved.

The final cost of demolition has not been set, although Courthouse Square Partners estimated it at a minimum of $6 million.

The county has not yet made plans for future use of the site if the courthouse is demolished, although Brooks said there has been discussion of making it an open public plaza.