A one-week continuance was given in Peoria County Court on Monday to the city of Peoria and MJ Illinois LLC as the two parties continue to work out the details of a deal that would see a conclusion brought to the Riverview Plaza saga.
Peoria and MJ Illinois LLC, which owns the Riverview Plaza Building in Downtown Peoria, have been mired in court hearings and negotiations for months surrounding the high-rise building that has been shuttered by the city since February 2024.
Earlier this month Riverview Plaza’s attorney, Tom Leiter, indicated in court that if his client was fined, the city could “have another building.” It was an insinuation that the building could fall into the city’s hands — an outcome city officials said they did not want.
At that hearing, MJ Illinois LLC proposed a timeline that would see repairs on the building completed by March 2026. The city declined to agree to that timeline and instead asked the judge to impose more than $2 million in fines.
The building has been shuttered since February 2024, and its owner, Junghoon Kim, has repeatedly promised to begin repairs but has not followed through.
In September, MJ Illinois agreed to a deal with Peoria that was supposed to see repairs begin no later than Nov. 1, 2024. The repairs never began.
MJ Illinois needs to make repairs to not only the building’s broken fire suppression and alarm systems but also the building’s attached parking garage.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Why negotiations are continuing on shuttered Downtown Peoria high-rise building
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
