Committee: Capital Improvements Committee Weighs $300 Million Options for Downtown Joliet Campus

Will County Board Capital Improvements & IT Committee Meeting | May 5, 2026

Article Summary
The Will County Capital Improvements & IT Committee is evaluating four multi-million-dollar proposals to replace aging county buildings, balancing the specific spatial needs of the County Clerk’s office with a debate over the legalities and logistics of potentially relocating the county seat.

Will County Master Plan Key Points:

• Wight & Company presented four building consolidation options ranging in cost from $239 million to over $306 million.

• County Clerk Kimberly Fladhammer and her staff requested 20,000 to 40,000 square feet of dedicated warehouse space for election equipment, which is not fully addressed in current proposals.

• Board Member Steve Balich (R-Homer Glen) suggested moving county operations to a “green space” campus outside Joliet to solve parking and expansion issues.

• The State’s Attorney’s office confirmed that moving the county seat from Joliet requires a county-wide voter referendum.

The Will County Board Capital Improvements & IT Committee on Tuesday, May 5, 2026, reviewed four extensive architectural proposals from Wight & Company to consolidate and replace aging county facilities, sparking a complex debate over space, cost, and location.

With the current County Office Building and the EMCO building requiring significant ongoing maintenance, the county is exploring a massive infrastructure overhaul. Mike Mahoney from the County Executive’s office presented the four options, which all hover around the $300 million mark.

Option 1 proposes two separate county buildings—one for auxiliary court functions (State’s Attorney and Public Defender) with a parking garage, and a new County Office Building at the site of the old courthouse. The estimated cost ranges from $239,030,000 to $302,030,000.

Option 2 features a partnership with the City of Joliet, combining city and county offices into one complex, with an estimated total cost between $239,550,000 and $303,730,000, though Joliet would cover the costs of its own square footage. Options 3 and 4 present variations of these configurations, with Option 4 encompassing a massive 385,600 gross square-foot building housing Judicial Agency Offices, the County Office, and the City of Joliet, plus a 230,400 square-foot parking garage, topping out at an estimated $306,040,000.

“Both buildings that we’re in right now for the State’s Attorney and probation… and the EMCO building, that building is in, I don’t want to say a state of disrepair, but it is very old,” Mahoney told the committee. “There are wood floors still throughout, wood subflooring throughout. It needs a lot of work to keep maintaining, and it will continue to cost the county additional millions of dollars in maintenance costs over the next five to 10 years. Obviously, the same with this building [the current County Office Building].”

The logistical challenge of the master plan was highlighted by the Will County Clerk’s Office. County Clerk Kimberly Fladhammer and her Chief of Staff addressed the committee regarding critical space shortages affecting election operations.

The Clerk’s office currently operates with approximately 4,000 square feet in the basement to house election day equipment and cages. They noted that comparable counties utilize warehouses ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 square feet. Furthermore, the office requires dedicated space for election judge training—currently held in a borrowed Human Resources conference room—and a secure event space for central and provisional ballot counting.

“The proposal by White was approximately 33,000 square feet for the county clerk’s office, which I think would be sufficient for the day-to-day operational issues with vital records,” the Clerk’s Chief of Staff said. However, she noted it would not satisfy the massive warehouse need for equipment, which requires specialized logistical access like freight elevators and loading docks.

Board Member Steve Balich (R-Homer Glen) argued that the spatial constraints and parking issues in downtown Joliet justify moving the county’s operations entirely.

“Most of the people on the board back in the day before the courthouse was built wanted to create a green space and build our own campus, and that would eliminate all the problems going forward,” Balich said. “There’s a whole lot of land in Joliet when you go west close to Grundy County like by Minooka… There’s a whole lot of land where they want to put big solar farms in Manhattan.”

However, relocating the core functions of the county government faces a strict legal hurdle. An Assistant State’s Attorney present at the meeting clarified the statutory limitations.

“The county seat is Joliet,” the attorney stated. “You need a referendum of the whole county to move the county seat. You could move it if everybody agreed in the county that voted for it… but we cannot move the county seat just by county board action.”

Board Member Jacqueline Traynere (D-Bolingbrook), attending the meeting as a guest, reminded the committee of the historical context behind keeping the campus downtown.

“The cost to move people that are housed in the jail to a courthouse that would be built on a green space in New Lenox was just not going to be supported,” Traynere said. “Not only the cost, but just the security issues. So that was the main reason why we chose to go forward with the courthouse downtown as opposed to a green space.”

The committee did not take a formal vote on the options. Instead, members requested that Wight & Company provide additional configurations, including assessing the feasibility of adding floors to the current County Office Building—a 1949 structure originally built as a Sears store—and exploring development on the north end of the current parking lot.