Belleville officials determine former mayor’s City Market plan not ‘feasible’
Belleville is dropping a controversial plan to convert a city-owned building next to City Hall into an indoor-outdoor City Market, a key initiative of former Mayor Patty Gregory.
Officials are looking at an alternative site in the downtown area and hoping the state will allow them to amend a grant agreement and still get $424,850 in matching funds, according to Eric Schauster, the city’s director of grants and special projects.
“After more investigative work by engineers looking at the building, we determined that it’s not going to be feasible at (the original) site,” he said last week.
Specifically, they found that plumbing and other costs related to installation of a commercial kitchen were going to be too high, and there was no good place for handicap parking, among other things.
Schauster said the city isn’t ready to reveal the location of the alternate site being considered for City Market.
“We’re waiting on the concept drawings and cost estimates so that we can request a change in scope from the state and see if they’ll even accept that,” he said.
The state awarded Belleville the grant in 2023 as part of a $22.5 million package to boost Illinois tourism. The money came from the federal government in the form of COVID-19 relief funds.
In January 2024, the City Council voted 13-1 to accept the grant and match it with city funds to cover renovation costs, then estimated at $864,115.
“I’m not convinced this is such a good deal,” said Ward 3 Alderman Kent Randle, who cast the dissenting vote. “Something tells me that this thing might very well end up being a money pit.”
Other critics said the City Market plan was flawed due to limited parking, lack of space for farm trucks, high renovation costs and a potential conflict with a proposed development down the street, although that development is no longer in the works.
Mayor Jenny Gain Meyer, who defeated Gregory in the April election, said last week that before she took office, her knowledge of the market plan was limited mainly to discussions surrounding the City Council’s vote on accepting the grant.
“My biggest concern, honestly, would have just been the issue of parking,” she said. “But I can really say that I didn’t have an opinion one way or another because I was not involved in any of (the planning).”
Meyer said final cost estimates on building renovations proved to be more than city officials wanted to spend, prompting them to go “back to the drawing board” and consider other possibilities.
Gregory didn’t respond to a request for comment.
City Market originated as a replacement for the seasonal, outdoor Old Town Market, which has operated in several locations. But early on, farmers complained that the proposed location at 117 S. Illinois St. didn’t have enough room to park farm trucks or unload produce.
Gregory envisioned a year-round market that would include art and craft vendors, a commercial kitchen for cooking demonstrations and space that could be rented for special events. She saw it as an economic-development tool, bringing more people downtown to shop and eat.
“We may have naysayers, but you know when I started Art on the Square, people told me it would never happen in Belleville,” she said in 2023. “(There were) naysayers galore, and look what happened.”
Gregory later said St. Clair County officials had agreed to allow the city to use the courthouse garage for market parking.
Last week, Meyer said she hadn’t talked to St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern about the market and therefore didn’t know if the garage offer still stood.
“It never got that far, no,” she said. “I do know that the council never approved any agreement with the county for parking.”
Gregory first discussed her idea for City Market publicly in July 2022. By January 2024, the city had spent nearly $5,000 for preliminary design and cost-estimate work.
At that time, Cliff Cross, the city’s former director of economic development, planning and zoning, told aldermen that officials hoped to see renovations partially completed in 2024 and fully completed by spring 2025, but it would depend on contractor bids.
No renovations were done on the building, which is still being used for storage, Schauster said last week.
The city petitioned the state last year to extend the deadline for using the grant money from the end of 2025 to the end of 2026, and that was approved, according to Schauster.
BND reporter Mike Koziatek contributed to this report.
