WAM 3 Communicator

 Noëllie Inard Credit: www.rejournals.com On Friday, December 2nd, Baird & Warner, Illinois more significant family-owned independent real estate services company broke ground on their new office. Situated at 1528 Aurora Ave., in Naperville Illinois, the office is built to house up to 500 Baird & Warner agents. This new office will be 15,000 square-foot and is designed to house all three of Baird & Warner’s business lines, brokerage, mortgage and title, under a single roof. This hub will offer both agents and clients the convenience of shopping in one place and will not only serve Naperville but also the surrounding communities. The new office will be overseas by the current manager of Bill & Weirder's current location, Bill Gill, and is being developed by RX Health & Science Trust and designed by OKW Architects. The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by the Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico and the President and CEO of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce Kay...

 Noëllie Inard Credit: www.dundalkeagle.com On Monday, November 28th, Amazon workers gathered to protest outside of the Amazon factory in Joliet, Illinois. The protest started at 3 AM on Monday, which was Cyber Monday, a marketing term for e-commercial transactions on the Monday after Thanksgiving to encourage people to shop online. This protest is the second one in less than two months and workers are still asking for better work conditions. Indeed, they want a safer workplace as well as a pay increase. The worker chose Cyber Monday to protest as a way to amplify their intentions since, according to them, Amazon could lose millions of dollars by being shut down during Cyber Monday. One of the Amazon workers told CBS 2, an American news channel, that “ This is one of the most ramped up days of the year, one of the most profitable, it's basically making sure everyone knows this is just a first fight that will help us in the long run.” Last May, racist death threats were found in the...

 Noëllie Inard Credit: urbanmilwaukee.com Last week, November 15th, 2022, C-Viche, a new Latin restaurant opened in Shorewood. Located at 4330 N. Oakland Avenue in Shorewood, this new restaurant offers Peruvian, Mexican and other Latin specialties. Its owners, Karlos Soriano and Paco Villar, are both respectively natives of Peru and Mexico. The partners originally wanted to open the restaurant in 2021, however, it was postponed due to the pandemic. This new C-Viche restaurant is the second location on top of the one located at 2165 S. Kinnickinnic Av. in Milwaukee. This new location will be the same as the first one with the exception that his new one will have an open kitchen where four people at a time would be able to sit behind the counter and watch the cooks.  Hours of opening are will be 4 to 10 PM Tuesday through Thursday and 4 to 11 PM Friday and Saturday. The restaurant plans to have a Sunday brunch as well as happy hours from 4 to 6 PM during the week. Main dishes' p...

 Noëllie Inard Credit: www.criticalgrind.com  On Thursday, November 10th, a new cafe named the Critical Grind Board Game Café opened in Shorewood, Illinois. This coffee shop is a little different from cafes already opened in the Joliet, Plainfield and Shorewood areas. Situated on 852 Sharp Drive in the Sharp Center off Black Road near Route 59 in Shorewood, the coffee shop, previously owned by a kickboxing studio, is close to the Bliss Hair Studio. The owners, Dana Buxbaum and her husband Shaun Tenant, mixed what they loved to create their idea of the perfect coffee shop. “I always wanted a coffee shop,” said Dana Buxbaum, “My husband and I combined our love of gaming with my vision of the coffee shop.” The coffee shop has made available bookshelves full of games such as Clue, The Serial Killer Trivia Game, Sorry, Dragoon and many more. In an interview with Patch editor, Buxbaum stated that they have “[...] about 400 games in [their] library” with family-friendly and inclusive...

 Noëllie Inard Credit: www.chicagotribune.com  On Wednesday, November 2nd, Lion Electric announced the end of the production of its first LionC zero-emission electric school bus at its Joliet factory. In May 2021, Lion Electric, a Canadian-based manufacturer of commercial vehicles, selected Joliet to hold its future US manufactory due to a growing demand for electric school buses in the United States. Lion Electric positioned itself to help school districts with the transition to electric buses with the help of the EPA Clean Bus Program which funded the project with $5 billion. The EPA Clean Bus Program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, a law that the Congress recently passed under President Joe Biden and which aimed to invest “ in [the] nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness,” according to the White House. The company’s efforts have paid off since they have now 700 electric vehicles on the road.       Lion Electric promised on January 2022...

Noëllie Inard  Credit: www.shawlocal.com On the night of Saturday, October 21st, the nurses of Joliet Ascension Saint Joseph’s Medical Center held a rally in front of the hospital. More than a hundred people attended the protest against the staff shortage and, according to the St. Joseph Nurses Association, against the suspension of three nurses who started raising concerns about the staffing in the emergency department. According to the World Socialist Website, an online publication focusing on social equality, a staff representative of the hospital, John Fitzgerald, explained that when the nurses complained about the inadequate covering of their shifts, security was called on them and they were escorted out. More importantly, Fitzgerald added that “[...] there were at least two sentinel events in this hospital that derive from unsafe staffing in this past week.” According to the medical dictionary website, a sentinel event is described as “an adverse event in health care delivery...

 Noëllie Inard                                                                                     Credit: www.orbitz.com  On Monday, October 10th, Penn Entertainment Inc. announced the relocation of its gambling casino and hotel to the Rock Run Crossings development mixed-use project near the I-80 and I-55 in Joliet. According to the Chief Executive Officer and President of Penn Entertainment, Jay Snowden, this new location offers “exceptional visibility and accessibility.” The casino has previously been situated at 777 Hollywood Boulevard along Route 6 since the early 1990s. According to Patch, a business-based news source, the project is expected to include a modern casino with approximately 800 slots, 45 live-game tables, ...

 Noëllie Inard Credit: www.ttnews.com On September 28th, leaders from Walmart, government officials and community members joined Walmart associates in Joliet to celebrate the grand opening of Walmart’s 1 1.1M square-foot Next Generation fulfillment center. Situated at 3501 S. Brandon Road in Joliet, the Walmart fulfillment center would work as a storage for the millions of items available on Walmart’s website. A fulfillment center is a newly used term for a warehouse that serves as a hub for the entire fulfillment process, so items ordered through the website will be picked at the fulfillment center, packed, and shipped directly to the customers. According to Business Wire, a market-focus news website, this new center will be the first out of four next-generation fulfillment centers that were announced this year to feature “ a new patent-pending process powered by the combination of people, robotics and machine learning.” Because of the new technologies available in this new Walmar...

Noëllie Inard Credits: facebook.com It was announced that on December 1st, 2022, the Joliet African American Business Association (AABA) will become its separate organization. Since its creation in 2017, AABA was only a subcommittee of the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry. However, according to chamber representatives, after several months of planning between the chamber staff and the AABA representatives, it is "with pride" that they announced this opportunity to the community. According to their website, the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry serves as the collective voice to benefit and better the community through initiative actions. It was initiated in 1914 and had the same goal since then, supporting the interests of businesses in the Joliet region and responding to the needs of the community. AABA chairman, Christopher Parker, stated “ We plan to [...] focus[ing] on collective impact, identifying new pathways for business success, and deve...

 Noëllie Inard Credit: Foxvalleymagazine.com  On September 14th, the Old Joliet Haunted Prison announced its official opening to the public from September 24th until November 5th. The Thirteen Floor Entertainment Group (13FEG) , which is a producer of world-class live events and location-based entertainment experiences, returns with the opening of the Old Joliet Haunted Prison for the 2022 season. Located at 401 Woodruff Rd in Joliet, IL, the Old Joliet Haunted Prison is the only haunted house in the Chicago area to be situated in a real prison. According to the Old Joliet Haunted Prison’s website, the 2022 haunting season features two new attractions known as “The Abominations,” which are “tragic beings hungry for the companionship of living flesh”  and the “Tormented,” described as rageful beings seeking eternal suffering for others as an act of revenge. Moreover, this year the Haunted house is sponsored by “Don’t Be a Monster,” an anti-bullying program.  Brought b...

 Noëllie Inard Credit: Chicagobusiness.com On September 6th, 2022, the owner of a Whirpool distribution center in Joliet sold its property, which, as of now, made the biggest sale of a Chicago-area industrial building this year. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the one-million-square-foot warehouse situated at 3851 Young Road in Channahon was sold for $104.4 million to Bank of America. Whirpool Corporation is a business providing services in the field of storage and moved into the space in 2015. According to Crain, Whirpool bought the building in 2018 for $71.5 million, showing an increase of almost 50% in the price. If today’s prices are high it is, according to REJournals, mostly due to a booming logistic market and the rise of e-commerce. According to Crain, the selling price of the warehouse has surpassed the $102.5 million sale in Channahon by Denver-based Ares Industrial Real Estate that happened a few months ago.  Warehouse values have increased along with the dec...

Noëllie Inard                                                                                                                          Credit: Yelp.com Sunday, September 4th, is the last day of business for River Hawk Brewing in Channahon, IL. After 5 years of business on U.S Route 6 in the Mallory Plaza, they announced their permanent closing on Thursday, September 1st because of financial reasons, stating that “it is a difficult decision, but financially we see it’s our only option.” The craft brewery will stay open from 12 PM to 9 PM to welcome their last customer.  On a sweeter note, Dan’s Homemade Candies situated at...

  Credit: universityhq.org On August 20th, a new Mexican restaurant opened in Joliet, IL, Tacos El Tio . This tacos restaurant comes directly from Chicago and is name Taco El Tio #6 because this restaurant is the sixth expansion since its opening in Chicago. Taco El Tio is taking the place of Beef Shack on 1660 Jefferson Street which went out of business last March. According to a student from the University of St. Francis, this newly opened business is already working well, “We went there on Saturday night to get a smoothie and it was packed.” Another student added that “the decoration makes you feel at home. It will also probably be a perfect place to go on a date.” Other than food, clothes are also a matter for students at this start of the semester. On August 26th, the thrift shop Prison City Vintage in Crest Hill changed its open hours and is now staying open until 8 PM. This vintage clothing store, which open on September 2021, is situated at 1922 Plainfield Rd, Crest Hill...