JOLIET — There has been a lot of talk over the years about the Louis Joliet Mall. Sears is long gone and empty. Carson’s closed six years ago, and plans to reopen the Carson’s store may have garnered national headlines over two years ago, but the project never materialized. Now, the Louis Joliet Mall may have another business venture on its hands, thanks to Xanxia Zhang.
Zhang’s proposal to open a massage therapy business called Relax The Body will go before the Joliet City Council at Tuesday night’s meeting. Relax The Body needs a special use permit and a variance from the Council before it can start giving back rubs and foot massages inside the Louis Mall.
According to city of Joliet memos, the 66-acre mall contains approximately 320,000 square feet of leasable area, excluding the four anchor spaces, with around 80 businesses now open within the mall. The tenant space in question is 1,260 square feet, on the south side of the mall near the exterior entrance, just west of the former Sears.
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The entry to the Relax The Body space is within the mall; there is no separate exterior entrance.
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As for Xanxia Zhang, the business owner has had an active massage therapy license from Illinois since 2013 and has previously worked as a massage therapist.
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The petitioner would be the only licensed massage therapist on staff initially, but they might hire up to three additional massage therapists in the future. The petitioner has already completed the background check as part of their City business license application, city documents show.
Relax The Body would be laid out to contain three massage tables, three foot massage tables, and three massage chairs. Proposed hours of operation are the same as the mall hours, which are Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
According to Joliet city officials,”The mall contains a variety of stores and businesses, including clothing stores, restaurants, and service businesses such as a nail salon and hair salon. The massage therapy business will not be harmful to or impede the use and development of other businesses and operations within or surrounding the mall.”
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