Belleville awards $800K TIF grant for dispensary and promise of indoor marijuana farm

Cities near Belleville have been reaping sales tax revenue from stores selling marijuana for several years and now Belleville leaders believe they will soon join the ranks of the cities with dispensaries.

Officials say a company plans to build the metro-east’s first indoor marijuana farm, or cultivation center.

Belleville has approved plans for dispensaries and a cultivation center in previous years but all of those proposals never got off the ground.

Here are details of the latest plans for two dispensaries and a cultivation center in Belleville:

▪ Blounts & Moore Holdings LLC will get $800,000 in TIF 3 funding from the city to open a marijuana dispensary in a former oncology center near the intersection of Illinois 15 and South 74th Street by August. The TIF money is to be used for remodeling and renovation of the building at 7300 Twin Pyramid Parkway.

▪ Belleville officials expect the city could earn $170,000 a year in marijuana sales tax revenue from this dispensary, which will be called Market 96. A development agreement unanimously approved by the Belleville City Council Tuesday states Blounts & Moore must invest $1.8 million in the dispensary and that the store is expected to have $8.5 million in annual revenue.

▪ Blounts & Moore, which has an office in Chicago, also plans to build a marijuana cultivation center next to Market 96 in 14 to 16 months. This project is estimated to be worth $10 million, according to Vince Fields, a consultant for Blounts & Moore.

▪ High Haven LLC was given a special use permit to open a dispensary in a former bank building at 360 S. Green Mount Road. A company representative could not be reached for comment about when this store would open.

An $800K grant

Mayor Patty Gregory said she is glad to hear the estimated amount in marijuana sales tax revenue the city could get from Market 96 and that it is worthwhile for the city to spend $800,000 to support Blounts & Moore.

“The sales tax that we’re going to get is going to be amazing,” she said in an interview.

Gregory said this revenue will be used “to help with projects that need to be done.”

TIF, or tax increment funding, money is collected from property taxes in the city.

In a TIF district, property values are frozen at the level when the district is created. 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. The TIF 3 district covers most of the city.

Michael Hagberg, who previously ran for City Council, was the only person to address the council before it approved the TIF grant. He said the $800,000 should be used for fixing streets and sidewalks.

“I don’t fault them for asking,” he told the council. “If you don’t ask, you won’t know. But it is up to this council to say ‘no.’”

Dispensary plans

Blounts & Moore expects to create 30 full-time jobs at the Market 96 dispensary.

Fields said Market 96 does not have a medical marijuana license from the state but that the store will offer discounts on cannabis products to customers who have a medical marijuana card.

Rita Moore Scott, one the nine principal owners of the company, said the name Market 96 is a nod to the nine women who founded the firm and to the year 1996, when California legalized the sale of marijuana.

“We’re looking forward to being a vital part of the community,” said Sherri Blount, chair of the company’s executive committee.