Critics say plan for new Belleville City Market is flawed. Mayor Gregory disagrees.

Mayor Patty Gregory and other city officials were elated by news last month that the state of Illinois had agreed to provide nearly $425,000 in matching grant funds to renovate a city-owned building next to City Hall and establish a year-round, indoor-outdoor market.

But some critics say the plan is 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.

Michael Hagberg, a self-described “government watchdog” who ran unsuccessfully in the April election to become Ward 5 alderman, expressed his concerns at a recent meeting of the Belleville City Council’s Economic Development and Annexation Committee.

“I would ask you to take a good look at the functionality of that building and say, ‘Is that the best use for taxpayers’ money, to be spending a million dollars plus rehabbing that into a marketplace, which is going to compete against private businesses in the area?’” he said.

Hagberg also brought up parking problems at City Hall, a longstanding issue that several local residents mentioned in Facebook posts when news of the grant was announced.

Gregory has billed the new Belleville City Market as an economic-development tool that would bring more people to downtown Belleville to shop in its stores, eat at its restaurants and go to its movie theater.

The market would include tents for farmers, artists and other vendors inside, a commercial kitchen for cooking demonstrations and a paved outdoor area for food trucks and a few more tents. The space also could be used for special events, according to officials.

Gregory, who served as director of Art on the Square in Belleville for 20 years before being elected mayor in 2021, said Monday she has done her research and knows the market plan is solid.

“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. “(There were) naysayers galore, and look what happened.”

Belleville City Market would be housed in a 5,300-square-foot, city-owned brick building at 117 S. Illinois St., between City Hall and a privately-owned building on the northwest corner of Illinois and Lincoln streets.

Renovation costs for the city-owned building are estimated at $846,115.

The $424,850 state grant is part of a $22.5 million package to support festivals and otherwise boost Illinois tourism. Money came from the federal government in the form of COVID-19 relief funds. Belleville City Council will be asked to provide a $421,265 match.

“We have the money for the match,” Gregory said, referring to $500,000 that the city has set aside for capital improvements. “We wouldn’t have put in for the grant if we didn’t have the match.”

Farmer has concerns

Belleville City Market would replace Old Town Market, an outdoor farmers market that operates on Saturday mornings May through November on South Charles Street. It has struggled in recent years, according to Belleville Main Street, which managed it until last fall.

Bryan Lehr took over this summer. His father, Art Lehr, owns Lehr’s Vegetable Farm in rural Columbia. The family has been operating a stand at Old Town Market since the early 2000s.

Bryan Lehr is tentatively planning to sell produce and plants at Belleville City Market if and when it opens, but he has concerns.

“I’m just not fond of the location of it,” he said. “There is no parking anywhere close, and 50% of our customers are 60 plus, and they’re not going to want to walk a block or two blocks to come get their produce and then carry it back to a parking garage or wherever they can find a spot to park.

“I’ve been trying and trying to tell (Gregory) that, but she says, ‘I know what I’m doing. This is the perfect location for it.’”

Produce and locally-raised meat vendors at farmers markets typically pull their trucks up to tents and work out of the back, and that won’t be possible at the primarily-indoor Belleville City Market, according to Lehr.

He’s also concerned that prices for tent rental will be too high for vendors from Old Town Market, and that Gregory wants to open at 9 a.m. on Saturdays, which he feels is too late for most farmers.

Old Town Market opens at 7:30 a.m. Most other Saturday morning farmers markets in the area open at 8.

Eric Schauster, assistant director of economic development, planning and zoning, said the paved outdoor area north of the proposed market building might have space for a couple of farm trucks.

Otherwise, farmers could pull up to the front door along Illinois Street (Illinois 159) and unload their produce, Gregory said. Lehr noted that unloading can take up to an hour.

“I’ve talked to other produce people, and they’re thrilled that they won’t have to set up their own tents,” the mayor said.

Most farmers markets today include soapmakers, artists and other vendors, not just produce, and that model will allow Belleville City Market to operate year-round, according to Gregory.

Her vision includes an “upscale” French village atmosphere with a wide variety of vendors who wouldn’t offer products in direct competition with downtown merchants.

“(This model is) much more sustainable for downtown on a yearly basis,” said Economic Development Director Cliff Cross. “It is not intended to be a seasonal farmers market. Everybody’s invited to come, but if it doesn’t meet what they need, I’m sorry. It’s not that the city doesn’t value them or want them.”

Plans call for the market to be managed by a part-time city employee with help from a volunteer board. Prices for tent rental haven’t been released. Old Town Market charges $25 a day for farmers and $15 for crafters, who provide their own tents and tables.

Parking and other issues

There’s no street parking on the block where the new Belleville City Market would be located. The city has two employee lots, one behind City Hall and one behind the Bank of Belleville at First and Harrison streets in the next block.

Gregory said Monday she hopes to get permission for market customers to park in the St. Clair County garage and the probation department lot in the same block, although no agreement has been finalized.

“Mark Kern is very supportive of the City Market, so therefore I think the way we’ve been working together between county and city (that the county will allow market parking),” she said, speaking of the St. Clair County Board chairman and former Belleville mayor.

The market would operate from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, according to the mayor. (The grant application listed 8 a.m. as Saturday’s starting time.)

St. Clair County offices close either at 4:30 or 5 p.m. on weekdays, and they’re closed on Saturdays.

Schauster said the city hasn’t been able to negotiate with the county or other entities because it’s still waiting for the official grant agreement from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. That agreement must be approved by Belleville City Council.

Another critic of the market plan is Kathy Mordini, a developer and owner of Avenue Realty in Belleville. She’s been talking to officials for nearly two years about possible acquisition of a vacant city-owned building on Mascoutah Avenue for a development project.

Mordini maintains that the mayor co-opted her idea and argues that a taxpayer-supported art and craft market would be competing against the privately-funded business that she has proposed.

“Patty knows that I didn’t vote for her, so she has made it hard for me around every corner,” Mordini stated in an email. “If you don’t agree with her, she will make it hard for you instead of doing what’s best for the city.

“She’s known for playing political games for her own agenda, and ultimately the city suffers. It’s a shame we can’t all work together towards the betterment of the community.”

Gregory rejects that characterization, saying she began sharing her thoughts with downtown merchants and Belleville Main Street leaders on how to replace Old Town Market on May 18, 2021, shortly after being elected mayor and before Mordini submitted her proposal.

Gregory, Cross and Schauster said Monday that Mordini’s proposal was handled according to a committee-approved formula that’s used for all development agreements related to city-owned property.

“We have followed the same rules for everybody,” Gregory said.

Developer changes mind

The same formula was used last year in a development agreement for a city-owned building at 407 E. Lincoln St. in downtown Belleville. Andria Powell, owner of Circa Boutique + Gifts, was interested in buying and renovating it and moving in her other business, Belle City Fitness Collaboration.

Powell has pulled out of the project, Cross told the Economic Development committee recently.

Powell didn’t return multiple calls for comment.

“We have decided that it would be in the best interest of our business to purchase (the fitness center’s) current location at 110 Mascoutah Ave.,” she wrote in an April 6 email to Cross.

“We appreciate the consideration and approval in the process to purchase 407 E. Lincoln through the development agreement, however we simply ran out of time to move forward with the project.”

Kathy Mordini and her daughter, Kinsey Mordini, reached out to city officials in early 2021 about acquiring the 1887 brick storefront and adjacent lot at 123-127 Mascoutah Ave. It’s been vacant for 27 years.

Schauster said Mordini initially spoke of opening a coffee shop, but her plans were still evolving, and he didn’t tell her the city would give her the building for $1 just to get it renovated and operating as a business, as she has claimed.

The Mordinis submitted a formal proposal in the spring of 2022 for Abend Street Incubator & Event Space. It’s described as a place for parties, showers, cooking classes in a commercial kitchen and other events, as well as outdoor pop-up markets where small-scale entrepreneurs could sell their products.

After several neighbors objected to the plan at a Belleville City Council meeting, aldermen tabled a decision and called for another request for proposals. The Mordinis submitted the only request.

The Economic Development committee drew up a development agreement, setting a purchase price of $48,816 (which represents a discount off the appraisal) and including provisions to hold the Mordinis liable if they don’t follow through on their commitment to renovate the building and operate a business for five years.

“Clawback provisions are not anything new,” Schauster said. “They’re in all our development agreements.”

Kathy Mordini said attorneys have told her the provisions would be too financially risky, given that the “dilapidated” storefront needs more than $200,000 in renovations and there’s no guarantee the business will succeed.

Cross said the project-approval process has taken longer than he would have liked, partly due to delayed responses and additional requests from Mordini, and she needs to accept the agreement or send it back with attorney-suggested changes for committee review, as requested.

“We in no way want to negatively impact her proposal because it’s contradictory to what we’re trying to do to revitalize and redevelop downtown,” Cross said. “So if someone has the opinion that we’re trying to do that purposely, I can tell you that is 110% not what we’re trying to do here.”