PEORIA — After more than two years of negotiations, pushed deadlines and new deals, the city of Peoria moved on Wednesday to enforce millions of dollars in fines against the owner of Downtown Peoria’s abandoned Riverview Plaza building.
The owner of Riverview Plaza, MJ Illinois, has failed to meet the terms of a deal it struck with the city in January that was supposed to see repairs made to the building to allow the 20-story high-rise to reopen.
However, in an eight-page court filing, the city alleges that MJ Illinois LLC has not acted in good faith and has failed to make promised repairs to the fire alarm and sprinkler systems. The city says that MJ Illinois has not followed the agreed upon timeline for repairs and additionally has not repaired broken elevators or HVAC in the building.
A final inspection of the fire systems, electrical systems and HVAC was conducted in February, but MJ Illinois failed to complete the promised repairs, the filing states.
Now, the city is asking a Peoria County judge to enforce fines against MJ Illinois ranging between $2.2 million and $8.2 million. On Thursday, the court ordered MJ Illinois, which did not appear in court, to respond to the city within 14 days. An enforcement hearing has been set for June 25.
Riverview Plaza saga leads to enforcement
Wednesday’s action by Peoria marks its firmest statement yet in the yearslong battle it has had with MJ Illinois in an effort to see the Riverview Plaza building repaired and reopened.
The city shut down the building in February 2024 after water damage rendered the fire alarm and fire sprinkler system unusable in the busy office building. In April 2024, the building’s owner, Junghoon Kim, told the Journal Star he was working quickly to make repairs.
The repairs never happened, and what has instead played out over the past two years has been a back-and-forth battle between the city and MJ Illinois in which deals have been made and then not followed through on by MJ Illinois.
In July 2025, the city and MJ Illinois reached a deal that dictated MJ Illinois would put $500,000 into an escrow account and use that money to make repairs to the building. The city, at the time, said that was a positive step in the right direction.
MJ Illinois put the money into the account but never made the repairs, according to the city.
That deal came after the city had previously threatened to levy the millions of dollars in fines against MJ Illinois, prompting MJ Illinois to threaten to walk away from the building, leaving it abandoned in Downtown Peoria.
Peoria instead moved to delay enforcement of those fines based on the deal penned last July.
An attorney for MJ Illinois LLC did not immediately return a Journal Star phone call on Thursday.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria moves to levy millions in fines against downtown building owner
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star | USA TODAY Network
