It was a Belleville hotel, then a college dorm. Now it will house police in training.

A former Belleville hotel that was used as a dorm for Lindenwood University students is now being converted into housing for cadets at the Southwestern Illinois College Police Academy.

The complex on West Main Street has been sitting vacant for nearly four years. The sign still reads “Lynx Lodge,” referring to the sports mascot for the university’s Belleville campus, which closed in 2020.

In recent weeks, contractors have been working on renovations and filling dumpsters with debris.

“The intent is to have functioning housing there for our cadets, who come from all over the state,” said Bob Tebbe, SWIC’s chief of enrollment development and institutional planning.

The project is expected to make 68 rooms available for cadet housing. The academy also offers arson, corrections and other training.

The city of Belleville bought the former Lindenwood campus at 2300 W. Main St. (formerly 2600) in 2021 and renamed it the Southwestern Illinois Justice and Workforce Development Campus. The purchase included Lynx Lodge at 2120 W. Main St.

SWIC receives free space for programs and nearly $6 million a year in state grant funding to manage the new campus.

The police academy moved to the SIJWDC from SWIC’s main campus on Carlyle Avenue in Belleville during the summer of 2022. Since that time, enrollment has doubled, from about 300 to 600 students in all programs, according to Director Eric Danford.

“That partnership has very much created a statewide (awareness) that we’re running a really good program,” Tebbe said. “We have more space, and we’re giving them a stronger and more hands-on learning opportunity.”

Cadets have been staying in two other former Lindenwood dorms, said Dean Hardt, a city employee who serves as SIJWDC coordinator. One has 72 rooms with six communal bathrooms. The other has 64 rooms with four bathrooms.

That set-up was fine for college students with varied class schedules, Tebbe said, but it can be challenging for cadets who all need to take showers and get ready for training at the same time.

Officials saw the former Lynx Lodge as a way to accommodate growth, as long as SWIC arranged for “significant upgrades,” Tebbe said. “It was unhealthy to even live in there.”

Officials estimate that renovations will cost $2 million. A target completion date is still being determined.

The hotel complex opened in 1964 as a Hyatt Lodge with a ballroom and outdoor pool. It was owned by Dave Fischer, brother of Kenny Fischer, who ran Fischer’s Restaurant next door. Both are deceased.

Dave Fischer sold the hotel, which became a Days Inn in 1997. It went independent as Belleville Inn in 2000 and later operated as part of the America’s Best Value Inn and Econo Lodge chains.

By 2001, only 12 of 73 rooms could be rented due to electrical and plumbing problems cited by city inspectors. By 2005, the property was in bank foreclosure. Kenny Fischer told the BND that the hotel closing significantly hurt business at the restaurant, which was demolished five years ago.

“We used to have a lot of business from weddings and on New Year’s Eve,” Fischer said at the time. “Both the restaurant and hotel were packed. New Year’s Eve is very soft for us now, and we don’t have the weddings like we used to.”

Lindenwood announced in 2010 that it would start leasing 30 rooms for 60 students in the hotel complex. Two years later, the university bought it.

Lindenwood closed the Belleville campus in 2020 and tried to sell it for $10 million. The city eventually bought it for $3 million, which the state reimbursed with an Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grant.

Area legislators helped SWIC get another $5.9 million grant through the Illinois Community College Board to begin managing the SIJWDC in fiscal year 2022-23. State Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, said that would include a one-time payment of $2.4 million to get vacant buildings up to code and $3.5 million for the first year of operations.

However, the Illinois General Assembly and Gov. J.B. Pritzker approved $5.9 million for 2023-24, and the ICCB is recommending the same for 2024-25, according to Matt Berry, board spokesman.

“For all of our grant programs, except for our priorities, we recommended that they stay flat (for 2024-25),” he said.

Besides the police academy, tenants at the SIJDWC include the Illinois State Police Forensic Training Institute, Southwestern Illinois Law Enforcement Commission, Jets Basketball Club and Metro East Criminal Justice Experiential Learning Program of Southern Illinois University Law School.

The city also uses the campus to house three of its departments: Health, Housing and Building; Economic Development, Planning and Zoning; and Engineering.