To fill their late father’s dream, family plans to build new Lebanon grocery store
Before he died in 2000, Don Elbe had bought land across the street from his Don’s IGA in Lebanon with plans to build a new store someday.
Now, his family is fulfilling his dream 19 years after his death and two years after the town lost its only grocery store.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Don’s IGA is scheduled for 9 a.m. Monday at 651 S. Madison St., which is in the city’s newly created TIF district that allows the developer to get a property tax break worth up to $230,000.
Construction is scheduled to begin after the ceremony and Mayor Rich Wilken expects the store to be open next spring.
Mike Elbe, one of Don Elbe’s sons, said the new grocery store has an estimated value of $3.5 million.
“This means so much to the city with regards to its future economic viability,” Wilken said.
For starters, residents won’t have to drive to neighboring cities for groceries.
Also, the town is expected to gain revenue from a business on a site that is currently not producing any revenue for Lebanon. The site is now a combination of a cornfield and a vacant lot.
Wilken said the city estimates it will get $30,000 a year in sales tax revenue from the site along with revenue from a utility tax the business will pay.
The store is expected to hire 15 full-time employees and 15 part-time workers.
Tax incentives
As part of the effort to increase economic development in Lebanon, the City Council created its first TIF district and Don’s IGA is in the district.
In a TIF, or tax increment financing, district, property values in the district are frozen at their current levels for a 23-year period and any additional revenue generated by a rise in property values is channeled into a special fund earmarked for infrastructure improvements and economic incentives in the district. It is intended to help property that would not see new growth “but for” the public investment.
In the Don’s IGA development, the City Council unanimously approved a redevelopment agreement in December with Elbe Enterprises LLC.
Under this agreement, the developers are eligible to be reimbursed $230,000 in property tax payments.
Also, the city successfully asked St. Clair County to include the site in an enterprise zone, which means developers can get an exemption on paying sales tax for construction material bought in Illinois.
Wilken said this sales tax exemption may be worth an estimated $130,000 for Don’s IGA.
Family business
Wilken, who noted that the Elbe family would not be able to build the store without the tax incentives, praised the Elbe family for taking the risks in pulling together the finances needed to open a multimillion dollar building.
Don Elbe ran Don’s IGA for decades before he died. Two years after his death, the Elbe family sold the grocery store business to Tom’s Market, which then closed the store in 2017. The Elbe family subsequently sold the old grocery store building to R.P. Lumber.
“They’re resurrecting the legacy of their deceased father who had a grocery store in town for years,” Wilken said.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhy did we report this story?
We wanted to give Lebanon residents an update on a proposed grocery store that we first reported on last year.
“My dad was a very, very good grocer,” Mike Elbe told the BND last year. “The reason that it’s a great thing to bring it back is to bring it (the grocery business) up to my dad’s standards.”
The family had initially hoped to break ground on the new store in the spring of 2018 but Wilken said getting the finances for the project took longer than expected.
Wilken said when residents asked him why the store hadn’t opened yet and he urged them to “be patient.”
“This whole project has brought on a tremendous interest to the city of Lebanon from other businesses that are looking down the road and seeing that the demographics of St. Clair County are moving in our direction,” he said.
But while city leaders are pursuing leads for new businesses, Wilken said they will strive to retain the “quaintness” of a small community where kids can ride their bikes to school and there is a low teacher to student ratio.
