Parcel puzzles county

• Odd strip of land: County pays $1,000-plus a month for property under building it owns

Every month, the county writes a rent check for a little strip of land under the Will County state's attorney's office building.

The sum? It's $1,047.67.

That's $12,500 a year.

The money goes to two sets of people: a pair of older women — Virginia Tatoul and Lezal Pinnell, descendents of the original owners of the land at 121 N. Chicago St. in downtown Joliet — and the unnamed parties of a trust.

The lease deal is another example of the county's complicated arrangements for housing its various offices. Although many are in downtown Joliet, they are scattered hither and yon throughout the area on more than 20 different sites. Some of them are county-owned, others aren't.

This particular piece of land runs east and west under the state's attorney's office, the building that some still call the old First Midwest Bank.

It's about 44 feet wide and 150 feet deep, said Mary Tatroe, supervisor of the civil law division in State's Attorney Jim Glasgow's office. The building's main entrance, its entire vestibule and a chunk of the parking lot sit on the rented land, she said.

"It's like a skunk, Glasgow said, cracking a joke. "Someone owns the stripe on the skunk right now."

When he learned about the lease arrangement, Glasgow decided it was time to do something. Tatroe has hired an appraiser to determine the value of the land, and once that is done, the process of acquiring the parcel will begin.

"We will move as expeditiously as we can to acquire the property and stop the lease payment," he said. "There are two reasons for that. One is not to waste the taxpayers' money. And secondly, the market value of the parcel will be greatly enhanced when we own it."

The county has owned the building for just a few years. Needing more office space, officials paid $850,000 for it in May 2001. Former State's Attorney Jeff Tomczak moved his office there in October 2001.

Back then, former Will County Executive Joe Mikan was at the helm.

"I assume they knew about it when they bought it," Tatroe said, adding that legal documents clearly indicate the ownership of the land.

Matt Ryan, chief of staff for current County Executive Larry Walsh, said earlier this week that he did not know about the lease.

"It is amazing to me that this would not have been resolved in 2001, when the other transaction took place," Ryan said. "But if it isn't, it isn't."

The lease goes way back to the days of flappers and speakeasies. It's dated Aug. 1, 1922, Tatroe said. The actual term of the lease — meaning the date someone began renting the property — did not start until February 1936, she said. It expires Jan. 31, 2021.

"Apparently that is what they did, years and years ago," Tatroe said. "I suppose they speculated that the value of property would go up, and they wanted to hold on to it. In 1936, $1,000 a month was a nice sum — but that is purely speculation."

When the county bought the building in 2001, the city of Joliet wanted it, too. At the time, a California company wanted to create a multiplex-style movie theater on the site. There's still plenty of interest in the property, said Jeff Plyman, Joliet's city attorney.

"(The) property has been looked at by many developers, and the city has received several high-quality proposals for the redevelopment of that site. With the proximity of the Rialto, the parking deck and the ballpark, and some of the entertainment venues downtown, it is an ideal location for high-end commercial redevelopment," he said.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.