Some employees of Chase Bank are back in downtown Peoria’s Riverview Plaza building this week, after a water leak wrought havoc on the building’s fire safety systems three weeks ago.
That’s according to Peoria Fire Department Chief Shawn Sollberger, who says the city was eager to help Chase Bank get back to work. Sollberger says this was made easier by the bank’s location, solely on the first floor of the 20-story building at 411 Hamilton Boulevard.
“Chase Bank is a valuable asset to our downtown district,” he said. “And we don’t want to lose that.”
Sollberger says the employees of Chase Bank are equipped with a special emergency operations plan from the fire department, just in case an emergency arises while the fire alarms and suppression systems are inoperable.
“The staff of Chase Bank has a strong understanding of their egress points,” Sollberger said. “What would happen or what they should do in the event of an emergency. We’re trying to restrict a little bit of access to the building by tenants as well.”
He says some department members stop by the building occasionally to make sure it’s being used as intended in the emergency plan. There will be a rolling process to review the plan every 30 days and update it as the building’s partial closure continues.
“We try to stay in constant communication with property management and property ownership,” said Sollberger. “And I think the last communication with them was Friday of last week.”
As for when repairs will be made to the building, Sollberger says there’s no definite progress. City officials told WCBU earlier this month that local construction company Pipco conducted a review of the needed repairs in the building. Sollberger says it’s his understanding that Thompson Electrics Company did an evaluation as well.
He says both vendors had done previous work on the building and submitted their findings to the property owner. The owner is listed in Peoria County property tax records as MJ Illinois, an Illinois-based limited liability corporation whose sole manager is Junghoon Kim of Roswell, Ga., according to records filed with the Illinois Secretary of State's Office.
Sollberger said the fire department is in communication with International Mission Jesus. That's a company also registered to Junghoon Kim, according to documents filed with the Alabama Secretary of State's Office. Breach of contract cases in New York state link Junghoon Kim to both International Mission Jesus and MJ Illinois. Multiple attempts to contact Kim and his company International Mission Jesus by phone and email have been unsuccessful.
What do we know about the building's owner?
Information about Kim and his companies can be gleaned from public and social media records, as well as press reports.
The company is listed under multiple addresses in Selma, Ala., including the campus of the former Concordia College, a private historically Black college that went under in 2018. A January 2019 Selma Times-Journal article on Kim's purchase of the campus describes him as a South Korean native who runs a church and successful construction business in that country.
Kim, who also goes by Dr. Paul J. Kim, is described on the International Mission Jesus web site as an evangelist and senior pastor of Chukbok Church who's held more than 1,450 revival meetings over the past 18 years. Videos on the International Mission Jesus Facebook page showcase Kim's revival meetings and his purported channeling of healing powers, including purging evil spirits and curing diseases.
Posts on the International Mission Jesus Facebook page tout Riverview Plaza as the organization's "Illinois Mission Center."
Peoria County property tax records show MJ Illinois LLC is delinquent on its 2021 taxes. Those unpaid taxes were sold in 2022 to Shannon Logsdon.
Under state law, the buyer of unpaid taxes can obtain the deed to a property after two years, but has the option to extend the final redemption date out to three years after the tax sale. Property tax records show MJ Illinois owes $84,194.64, which includes interest owed to the tax buyer. The owner received an extension and must repay the debt by May 7, 2025.
In addition, Peoria-based Thermal Mechanical Services alleges MJ Illinois hasn't paid for some $71,264.47 in HVAC work performed between September 2022 and August 2023. The company filed for a mechanic's lein on the building on Feb. 2, according to documents held by the Peoria County Clerk's office.
MJ Illinois took out a $2.22 million mortgage on the building with Midland States Bank in July 2023. MJ Illinois purchased Riverview Plaza for $3.8 million in 2021.
What happens next?
Sollberger says communication with International Mission Jesus is now primarily happening through City of Peoria corporation counsel Patrick Hayes.
Hayes says the city is interacting directly with International Mission Jesus through their attorney, Tom Leiter of Peoria's Leiter Group.
"The ownership, through their attorney and other officials that we've met with directly, have expressed that they intend to do their best to expedite the needed repairs and get the building back in order," said Hayes.
WCBU contacted the Leiter Group with a request for comment and is awaiting their response.
Hayes says the city sent a "substantial list" of code violations to International Mission Jesus, a number of them related to the fire alarm and suppression systems.
"It would appear that at this point, they're making some decisions," he said. "Or deliberating how to execute on the repairs required."
For now Sollberger says there’s nothing more to do on the fire department’s part but wait. He says the department is in communication with Pipco and Thompson Electrics and no repairs have been scheduled or contracts secured for the needed repairs at Riverview.
“We work with them on a consistent basis,” said Sollberger. “So what we tried to do at that particular point was use our relationships to increase communication to kind of expedite the process. And obviously, that didn’t work out.”
