Joliet To Spend $250,000 To Purchase Empty MyGrain Brewing Assets

JOLIET — Just one month after Joliet and Mayor Terry D'Arcy adopted the 2025 city budget, the Joliet City Council is being asked to spend $250,000 to purchase the undisclosed assets of the empty MyGrain Brewing Company inside the city of Joliet-owned Union Station.

At Tuesday's first Joliet City Council meeting for 2025, a nine-page document is on the agenda, seeking the Council's authorization to spend $250,000 in taxpayer dollars to pay Grzegorz Lesiak, manager of MyGrain Brewing. MyGrain has been closed since August 2023.

"The Purchaser and Seller agree that the Asset Purchase Price shall be allocated entirely to furniture, fixtures and equipment, with such agreement to be consistent with Section 1060 of the Internal Revenue Code," the documents reflect.

On Thursday, Joliet's director of community development Dustin Anderson explained to Joliet Patch that past administrations at Joliet's City Hall negotiated the lease agreement with MyGrain Brewing that made it difficult for Joliet to regain control of its property even though MyGrain has been closed for nearly one and a half years.

"It was a generous lease to MyGrain," Anderson told Patch. "We want it to be a productive parcel again. Even though they closed, the terms of the lease precluded us from taking action. No one really wanted to evict anybody. Now, we can move on, and we want to move on."

According to Anderson's memo to the City Council, Joliet previously entered into a lease agreement with MyGrain Brewing Company to operate a brewery and restaurant at the historic Union Station building.

MyGrain permanently closed its operations as of August 19, 2023. As a result, the City is agreeing to purchase the business’s remaining equipment to facilitate a lease termination, Anderson explained. "The termination of the lease agreement is a necessary step to maintain economic activity and operations at the historic Union Station location," Anderson wrote the Council. "It will ensure that the lease obligations of both parties are fully resolved, demonstrate the City’s commitment to supporting local economic development, and align the City’s strategic goals for the use and development of Union Station."

The documents posted on Joliet's website do not contain an inventory or photos of the items Joliet is proposing to purchase from MyGrain as part of the $250,000 city-funded expenditure.