The Joliet-Will County Center for Economic Development has selected a Minneapolis firm to determine the feasibility of constructing a civic center/convention complex to help rejuvenate downtown Joliet.
Convention Sports Leisure, which has performed similar feasibility studies in Milwaukee and Dallas, will be paid $80,000 for the assignment, half of which will come from the Center for Economic Development and the other half from the Illinois and Michigan Canal Heritage Corridor and Visitors Bureau.
“We are asking them, first, to assess what kind of facility would best suit the market here and how it can be integrated into our City Center (downtown Joliet),” said Bill Whitmer, vice president of marketing for the City Center Partnership, an arm of the Center for Economic Development. “In addition, we want them to tell us how such a facility should be funded.”
The study is expected to take 18 weeks to complete. In addition to determining what type of civic center downtown Joliet needs and the best way to finance it, the study also may suggest possible sites for building the complex, Whitmer noted.
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Economic development officials in Joliet have envisioned a civic center/convention complex for the downtown area for nearly a decade. The hiring of a firm to study the feasibility of such a facility marks the first step toward the possible realization of that vision, according to those officials.
Actual construction of such a complex, however, could be a couple, if not several, years away, officials said.