Belleville officials hope TIF can help save ‘blighted’ area around shopping plaza

Some Belleville City Council members are alarmed at what’s happening near the intersection of West Main Street and North Belt West.

Vacant and rundown buildings and strip malls are surrounded by pothole-filled parking lots with little or no landscaping, derelict signs and other evidence of urban decay.

The problem was discussed by aldermen and staff at a recent Economic Development and Annexation Committee meeting. They determined that the city needed to start the process of creating a new tax-increment-financing (TIF) district in the area.

“We’re going to have to do something extravagant with this corridor,” said Johnnie Anthony, alderman for Ward 4, which includes Bellevue Park Plaza strip mall on the northeast side of the intersection.

Anthony pointed out that many businesses in the area have closed, most recently a landmark McDonald’s restaurant on West Main Street.

Spaces at Bellevue Park Plaza and nearby shopping centers are mostly filled with tenants, but many don’t produce much sales-tax revenue for the city, according to Anthony.

“If we don’t do something to enhance the businesses and the buildings in this corridor, we’re going to have a serious problem, more than a serious problem, in the next five or 10 years,” he said.

Anthony called it a “cancer” that could keep spreading.

Illinois law allows cities to create TIF districts with special funds for infrastructure improvements and economic incentives. As property values rise, all or a portion of additional tax revenue generated goes into the funds instead of schools and other local taxing districts.

The committee voted to recommend that a consultant, Moran Economic Development, be hired to assist with the process of creating a new TIF district. The City Council approved the $28,900 expenditure on Monday night.

“If we don’t do something over there, it’s going to ... It already is a blighted area,” Ward 5 Alderwoman Shelly Schaefer said at the committee meeting on May 3. “It needs help.”

‘A fighting chance’

Cliff Cross, director of economic development, planning and zoning, released a tentative map for the proposed TIF district to the BND. It’s now being called Bellevue Plaza TIF.

The map shows the boundary starting with Gray Street to the north and going south on 46th Street, east to 45th Street (in the middle of a block), south on 45th Street, west on North Belt West, southwest on 45th Street, northwest on Main Street and northeast on 47th Street.

The area is essentially a notch that was left out of Belleville’s TIF 3 district, created in 1986 to cover most of the city. At that time, Bellevue Park Plaza was in good shape, but today the strip mall and other businesses need a “facelift,” Cross told the committee.

“Because of the issues with this area, we’ve got to give it a fighting chance,” he said. “... We don’t know what the specifics of a final TIF are going to be, but we want to start the process.”

The proposed TIF district would cover Bellevue Park Plaza, including the old Sears building behind the strip mall, as well as CVS Pharmacy and another shopping center across North Belt West with Save a Lot and Family Dollar.

The district wouldn’t include three small strip malls along North 47th Street that formerly housed Mallo’s Bakery and Remick Hardware. They’re part of TIF 3, which will be active until 2033.

At the committee meeting, Belleville resident Michael Hagberg voiced his opposition to the creation of new TIF district.

“With the exception of the old Sears building behind the plaza, the plaza seems to have all its tenants in there,” he said. “The owners are out-of-state corporations. They’re collecting their rents. Let them spend their own money fixing up the property if you feel that it needs to be fixed up.”

Bellevue Park Plaza is owned by Bellevue Plaza LLC. St. Clair County records show that it was purchased in 2005 for $2.65 million.

The limited-liability company’s principal is Gabriel Jeidel, owner of G.J. Realty, a real-estate investment firm in New York, according to Matthew Barriger, of BarberMurphy in Shiloh, who manages the strip mall for Jeidel.

Barriger said Blockbuster’s bankruptcy and store closures in the 2010s were a big blow to Bellevue Park Plaza and many other strip malls across the country because the stores served as important anchors.

“Those were large spaces to backfill,” he said.

First strip mall

Today, Bellevue Park Plaza has 10 tenants, including two dollar stores, a thrift shop, STEAM academy, rental center, nail salon, insurance office, phone store, Chinese take-out restaurant and beauty-supply store.

There are five vacant spaces, including the old Sears building, which covers 14,400 square feet, according to Barriger.

“I think a TIF is warranted in that area,” he said. “It could really jump-start or revitalize the area, just like it’s done in downtown Belleville. A TIF can be a great enhancement. Sometimes it can be a deal facilitator. It gets some of these development deals to the finish line.”

Barriger noted that city health and safety ordinances have changed dramatically in the past few decades, and new property owners can use TIF incentives to bring buildings up to code.

Bellevue Park Plaza opened in 1956, according to Bob Brunkow, historian with Belleville Historical Society. It was designed by a Chicago architect for a Chicago developer.

Brunkow noted that a full-page ad in the BND listed all the businesses. Several were satellite locations of downtown Belleville merchants, including the anchor, a W.T. Grant store.

“It was Belleville’s first strip mall,” Brunkow said.

Other early tenants included Feickert’s Bakery, Peter’s Shoes, Stiehl’s Walgreens, the Toggery for men’s and boys’ clothing and Viviano’s Tropical Garden for “decorative plants.”

The proposed Bellevue Plaza TIF district wouldn’t include properties across West Main Street from Save a Lot, where Bicycle World and McDonald’s closed and the former Nonna’s and Ponderosa restaurant building burned earlier this year. They’re already in TIF 3.

Bicycle World store owner Hal Leventhal listed the declining area as a factor in his decision to close after 40 years in business.

Alderman Anthony told Economic Development and Annexation Committee members that Belleville could help local businesses in the long run by increasing its population. He said the city is “taking a beating” from neighboring communities because of its reluctance to allow more multi-family housing.

But Anthony mostly spoke about immediate action needed to help the Bellevue Park Plaza commercial area.

“We see what’s happening over there,” he said. “We can either heed the signs right now, or we can let it go, and it’s going to be very detrimental. It’s already been detrimental.”