'Absolute madness': Frustration mounts over shuttered Downtown Peoria high rise building

Current and former tenants are furious and city officials are frustrated with the owner of Downtown Peoria's Riverview Plaza Building. The 20-story high rise remains mostly closed more than two months after being shut down by the fire department.

In February, tenants of Riverview Plaza — commonly known as the Chase Bank Building — found out they had to vacate and were prevented from going inside unless escorted by the fire department. This is because the building's fire suppression and fire alarm systems are not functioning and have not been repaired by ownership.

Since then, the building's owner, Dr. Paul Kim, a South Korean businessman, has come under scrutiny from current and former tenants who allege the building has been neglected under his ownership and the fire system issue is just a culmination of years of ignored issues.

But Kim counters those claims. He says he "loves Peoria" and does have a track record of paying bills on time at Riverview Plaza. He says he has worked to maintain the building while he's owned it.

"We are trying to open as soon as possible and we are preparing everything to repair the sprinkler and fire alarm — we are doing everything right now," Kim told the Journal Star in an exclusive interview Thursday.

However, city officials and tenants say little has been done to repair the building. The saga that has played out at one of Peoria's most prominent buildings has been confounding for both city officials and those who have worked there.

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'He just neglected it'

Opened in 1967, the 20-story Riverview Plaza Building is the third tallest in Peoria.

Kim bought the building in 2021 for $3.8 million under his LLC MJ Illinois, which is directly tied to the Christian church he runs called International Mission Jesus.

Tenants of Riverview Plaza say things began to take a turn for the worse after Kim bought the building. Repairs were neglected, bills went unpaid and management that had once been easy to work with became unresponsive, according to current and former tenants.

"Wherever the blame lies, it's on the current owner of the building — that guy should have known what he was getting himself into, and I am sure he did," said Shaun Cusack, of Cusack and Gilfillan Law, which operated out of Riverview Plaza when it was open. "And then he just neglected it, just decided not to pay attention."

Conditions got progressively worse after Kim bought the building, tenants said. Contractors and cleaning companies hired to maintain the building allegedly were not paid for their work, according to complaints filed in Peoria County court. Broken elevators went days without being fixed, and in one instance this past January, residents in the building sat freezing in their offices for two weeks after the building's heat stopped working, tenants said.

Kim disputes this, however, and says he has maintained the building "very well."

"We have received passing inspections of elevator and fire system every year, we passed already. If I didn't maintain the building, how can we pass the inspection?" Kim said.

Former tenant Rob Parker, of Parker and Parker law firm, said tenants had been expecting something like this to happen in the building, given the lack of attention from ownership. But Parker said they did not expect the building to close this soon and so abruptly.

"We did not expect it was coming that fast, but we did see it coming to some degree," Parker said. "I think that depends on who you ask, but there were people — us included — who probably had a bias toward thinking things were going to be better than they were gonna be.

"Some of the people on our floor and above us with the particularly cool views — floor to ceiling windows — were hanging on to hopes that 'it's just temporary, they say they're working on it' ... and we were just like 'look, you can hold your breath if you want to.' But people wanted to believe that and found it hard to believe that such a nice, formerly nice, building in Peoria would just go to waste like I think it's going to," Parker said.

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Lawsuits and allegations

Kim's business dealings also have former tenants questioning if the South Korean mogul, who presented himself around the building as a "rock star," was ever as wealthy as he claimed to be.

"My opinion is the owner doesn't have the money, even if he wanted to do the repairs," Parker said. "If I had to guess, they underestimated the cost of maintaining the building. I don't think they invested in maintaining the building in the three years they owned it."

Kim, whose real name is Junghoon Kim, is facing lawsuits in New York over breach of contract violations; was accused by Thermal Mechanical Services of not paying over $70,000 in bills for work on Riverview Plaza; and is facing a lawsuit in Peoria County from a cleaning company that claims it was not paid for work.

Kim is being sued in Peoria by cleaning company 4M Solutions, which alleges Kim never paid roughly $69,000 in cleaning bills for the building. A hearing is scheduled for that case on April 19.

When it comes to the unpaid cleaning company and thermal company bills, Kim said he did not pay because he felt the prices were too high.

"We've got a lot of companies that the former owner had a contract with, like the cleaning company, but cleaning company was not good for us so we needed to stop the payment and we will try to negotiate through the lawyer and then we will pay off everything. I will do that," Kim said.

Kim said he made all payments on time after he bought the building but said payments "suddenly" started growing.

"I want to make the payment to them after negotiating through a lawyer," Kim said.

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In regard to the breach of contract lawsuits in New York, Kim said he is "finishing everything right now" with those lawsuits.

However, Peoria Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger said just this week a security company hired by Kim to monitor the building while it was shut down walked off the job because they were not being paid.

"It's just one thing after another, just absolute madness," Cusack, a building tenant, said. "It makes you so angry."

Kim's lawyer, C. Edwin Walker, filed a motion to withdraw as Kim's attorney in the case with the cleaning company on March 21 due to "irreparable breakdown in attorney-client relationship," according to court documents. Walker told the Journal Star on Tuesday he could not comment on the case.

Adding to the oddness surrounding Kim is his church, MJ Illinois. It operated out of the first floor of the Chase Bank Building and also has a location in Selma, Alabama.

Kim is somewhat of a prophet figure in the church. Videos on YouTube show Kim traveling the world giving electric sermons and even healing people and exorcising them of demons by touching them on the forehead in grand, theatrical displays of "healing powers" and "miracles."

"Things just started going weird," Cusack said of Kim buying the building. "With the previous owner, it was really easy to get a hold of management for little things like the heat was too high or there was no air conditioning. They were on it. The elevators were always working. Then the new guys took over and things just started to slowly snowball."

Kim unresponsive to city, tenants over building repairs

Since Riverview Plaza closed in February, the city has unsuccessfully been attempting to engage Kim in talks to make repairs. But thus far, it says it has heard little from Kim on how and when he intends to make the repairs.

City Councilmember Chuck Grayeb said he has been "flummoxed" by the lack of urgency from Kim to repair the building and get it operational again.

"He (Kim) called me and said 'we need to talk' and I told him, 'Doctor, you need to get the fire suppression and/or sprinkler system working for you to get that building populated again,'" Grayeb said. "I said 'it has been made very clear to you, and your architect told you to bring about $500,000 to Peoria to get going on that.'"

Grayeb said Kim was told "over and over again" that the fire systems needed to be repaired.

"It's a major downtown building," Grayeb said. "We want it to get fixed and reopened."

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Kim said when the fire systems broke in January he tried to bring in a company to fix it on an emergency basis, but they wouldn't begin work until the check he gave them cleared. They then asked to be paid in cash, Kim said.

"I paid immediately by my check, but they wanted to wait until my check cleared," Kim said. "So many people misunderstood and said 'I didn't act in the emergency situation.' No, I did, but they didn't work until my check cleared."

Kim said he is now working with his insurance company and is taking estimates from companies on how to fix the fire systems and "renovate the whole building." He said the estimates to fix the fire systems are about $300,000.

Kim told the Journal Star that the fire alarm system in the building has been repaired but he is waiting to replace an electrical panel as well.

Sollberger said the fire alarm system has not been repaired.

"That is inaccurate," Sollberger said. "Not even close to accurate. There's been zero permits, and if he has done it, he's done it outside the permitting process. Which is illegal."

The Peoria Fire Department conducted a walk-through of the building earlier this week. Repairs had not been made.

"That's not accurate at all. His panel has to be replaced first for his fire alarm system to be even assessed — it's that old and dilapidated," Sollberger said Thursday. "Everything he is telling you is inaccurate."

Sollberger said he has not had any communication with ownership and added the fire department has continued to walk through the building to check if any repairs have been made. They have not, and no permits to do work on the fire systems have been submitted, he said.

Sollberger said Kim was given a grace period before any code violations were issued, but that period of time is over and the city will start issuing code violations and fines next week.

"We've given them over two months to rectify their issue. They haven't put in any paperwork for the permitting process," Sollberger said. "Right now, our opinion is any information you're getting from ownership would be inaccurate."

Chase Bank on the first floor of Riverview Plaza is the only business currently allowed to operate in the building.

Peoria city attorney Patrick Hayes said he has had "direct conversations and interactions" with building ownership and said "they understand the city's position of the building being limited access to just the first floor and just the bank operation but otherwise limited access building until the fire safety issues are resolved."

Kim said talks with the city are now going well but said there had previously been a breakdown in communications.

Hayes also said the parking deck for the building has been barricaded and repairs are needed there as well.

Cusack said tenants received emails from building management apologizing for the closure with promises they were working quickly to fix the problem, but thus far, those promises seem to have been empty.

"As you go down there — because we still have to go down there to get files and stuff, get mail and just check on the place in general — you never see a contractor or anyone in the building," Cusack said. "This is a major undertaking they have to do, and you would think there would be some sort of contractor there 24/7 probably — but not one, not one. The only thing I have seen there is moving trucks."

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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Frustration mounts over shuttered Downtown Peoria high rise building