Renner Funeral Home plans expansion in Belleville with help from tax break
To meet the increasing number of requests for cremation services instead of burials, George Renner & Sons Funeral Home Inc., which traces its roots to 1929 in Belleville, has announced plans to build a crematory.
As part of a development agreement with the city of Belleville, the company will get a property tax rebate on the building site for seven years.
The family-owned company said it will invest $1.44 million in the crematory to be constructed on a vacant lot at the corner of North High and East B streets. The lot is on the block next to the funeral home’s headquarters at 120 N. Illinois St. The Renner parking lot at the corner of North Illinois and East B streets will remain open.
Renner Funeral Home, which also has locations in Freeburg and Smithton, expects construction to begin this spring and to end in the fall. Highland-based Korte & Luitjohan Contractors will oversee the work.
This site at 201 N. High St. will not be open for the general public to meet with funeral directors.
“The families that we serve will still be coming into our main facility to make arrangements,” said Sam Renner, one of the fourth-generation of Renner family members who manage the funeral home chain.
Families can still have a traditional visitation while choosing cremation, he said.
Cremation numbers increase
By 2025, an estimated 64.1% of the those who die in the United States will be cremated, according to a report by the Cremation Association of North America.
That’s up from 4.6% in 1970, 34% in 2006 and 57.5% in 2021, the group states. In Illinois, the rate was 55.4% in 2021. Statistics for 2022 are not yet available, a spokeswoman for the association said.
“It’s definitely growing in the last 10 years,” Sam Renner said of cremations.
The cremation service is less expensive than conducting a burial service in a cemetery.
CNN reports that cremation has been popular with baby boomers who haven’t followed the burial traditions of their parents and grandparents.
Tax breaks
The Belleville City Council last month unanimously approved the development agreement with Renner Funeral Home.
“We are committing to this investment because it helps us to better serve the families in our community and building this facility next door to our main funeral home will help us operate in an efficient manner,” Sam Renner said in a statement.
Renner Funeral Home is required to spend at least $1.44 million to build a 5,000-square-foot crematory. The business must stay open for at least 15 years and retain six full-time employees.
If the company doesn’t meet these standards, it will be required to pay back the tax breaks it received, according to the penalty clause in the development agreement.
Renner will receive a rebate on the property taxes on the crematory site over seven years.
The rebate will be for 80% in the first year of the agreement and will drop by five percentage points each year to a 50% rebate in the last year of the agreement.
The development agreement does not have an estimate how much this tax break is worth.
Sam Renner said he did not have a value of the rebate since the crematory has not been built yet and, therefore, not assessed by the county.
One of the founders of the company was Sam Renner’s great-grandfather, George Renner Sr., who helped start the firm in 1929. It has been based in its current headquarters at 120 N. Illinois St. since 1934.
The other two funeral directors and partners now running the company are Sam Renner’s cousins, Jenna Renner Graser and Dave Renner.
This story was originally published January 4, 2023 at 1:19 PM.
