Granite City is Growing Away From Its Steel Image: Opening of Bridge Has Spurred Growth
By Will Buss, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill.
May 19–GRANITE CITY — Mayor Ed Hagnauer wants to shake “the stigma.”
“Dirty little steel town,” said the life-long resident. “That’s the kind of stigma we’ve always lived with, and nobody has really aggressively gone out and tried to change that. I think that’s kind of what we’re doing.”
Since his election to office three years ago, the former Granite City fire chief and firefighter has made strides that are beginning to take shape in his hometown that has long been noted for its steel production.
First, a new streetscape program was undertaken on Niedringhaus Avenue along the city’s oldest and most historic buildings, including City Hall. Sixteen cameras were placed around the downtown areas allowing police to monitor areas deemed unsafe.
City property inspections have been bolstered and alleyways are regularly cleaned.
The city has purchased six vacant buildings downtown, including the former YMCA located across the street from City Hall. This is where Hagnauer and the City Council envision a new arts and theater center and museum in the 84-year-old building.
Jon Ferry, who at 23 become the city’s economic development director in 2006 after the job was open five years, said the art and entertainment development will be done by public investment through tax increment financing bonds that should become available by the end of next month. That will provide approximately $15 million, of which $4 million has been designated for a new four-screen movie theater downtown.
“The movie theater takes care of the entertainment, but the core of the arts district is this YMCA renovation, which we want to turn into a cultural arts center,” Ferry said. “The main portion of this redevelopment includes an approximately 300-seat auditorium for live performances, concerts and plays and things of that nature,” Ferry said.
“Initially, our ideas are to include an orchestra pit. It’s something that is not in a lot of venues in this area, so it opens up the number of possibilities for us in terms of what can be offered here,” he said.
A major accomplishment that is also helping push the city’s redevelopment occurred Dec. 17 when the first vehicles rolled across the McKinley Bridge after more than six years of refurbishment. The bridge closed Oct. 30, 2001, and the $46 million McKinley Bridge reconstruction project didn’t get under way until June 2005. The 97-year-old bridge’s reopening has reconnected the city and neighboring Venice with a direct link to downtown St. Louis and has provided renewed interest along the Illinois 3 corridor.
“It gave us a chance,” Hagnauer said. “That’s the biggest thing. It gave us the opportunity to sell our area.”
Weber Chevrolet is a century-old Chevy dealership that is coming up on its 15th year at Illinois 3 and Pontoon Road. Business manager Nate Morris said that since the bridge reopened, more customers are coming from North St. Louis County and areas in and around Godfrey who are noticing the dealership when they are going to work in downtown St. Louis or to a Cardinals game or any other attractions across the river.
“When the bridge opened, we got more traffic in front of our dealership, and (business) increased dramatically,” Morris said.
Pursuing retail development
Seeing the success Belleville has had in developing its Illinois 15 corridor, Granite City officials want the same results with new retail development along Illinois 3.
In March, the city announced that Lowe’s will build an estimated $35 million, 117,000-square-foot store on Illinois 3, just north of Weber Chevrolet and Wal-Mart. The home improvement retailer will anchor what will be the first of many planned stores and restaurants at the development, to be know as Granite Park Center. Ferry anticipates a bank, a gas station, an office supply store, several sit-down restaurants and at least one more big-box retailer will come to town.
The initial spark occurred almost three years ago when the former Nameoki Plaza was redeveloped and added some of the first new retail the city had seen in years. Renamed Nameoki Commons, the new shopping center brought in an Arby’s, Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill and the metro-east’s first Starbuck’s outside of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. There also is a remodeled Shop ‘n Save grocery store.
Businesses continue to relocate and inquire about River’s Edge, the business park at the former Melvin Price Support Center off Illinois 3. The Tri-City Port District’s redevelopment of the former Mel Price Army Depot has led to 75 new businesses in the community.
The latest is Connecticut-based Fairfield Processing Corp., which manufactures polyester fiber used for pillows and crafts that are sold at craft stores. In noticing the metro-east business park’s activity, the manufacturer closed its distribution operation in Utah and relocated to a 130,000-square-foot warehouse in River’s Edge in February and created 15 new jobs.
Port district general manager Dennis Wilmsmeyer said he receives more phone calls from businesses on both sides of the river and elsewhere who are interested in the port district’s central location and access to major highways, railways and the Mississippi River.
“We get a lot more response to our site than what we initially saw,” Wilmsmeyer said. “We had been doing well here before. It just seems that now the phone calls and inquiries about warehousing space and available development sites continue to grow here as we become more and more visible. It’s neat to see traffic, again.”
Heavy industry thriving
Sheet metal cutter Arnette Pattern Co. has relocated to Illinois 3 after having entertained ideas of moving to Sauget.
Metal molding manufacturer Custom Forms and Fabrications consolidated its offices in Maplewood, Mo., and relocated to town, where it has invested $2 million to expand operations.
Huntington Beach, Calif.-based raw metals importer and exporter International Voyage Corp. has purchased the former General Steel site and is in the process of cleaning that site and razing buildings for a several warehouses.
Earlier this month, U.S. Steel Corp. broke ground on a $570 million state-of-the-art, low-emission plant coke oven and co-generation plant on Illinois 203 between 21st Street and Nameoki Road. Coal will be processed into coke, a key ingredient in the steel-making process. Steam from the coke oven will be converted at an adjacent power plant that will harness the excess heat to run a co-generation turbine engine to help power the Granite City steel mill. The new plant is expected to open in 18 months and bring 900 construction jobs and 88 permanent full-time jobs to U.S. Steel Corp.-Granite City Works.
Just five years ago, the steel mill formerly known as Granite City Steel was bankrupt. But in 2003, U.S. Steel purchased it and other National Steel assets. The mill’s new expansion further ensures the community’s oldest industry’s livelihood.
“It guaranteed the city’s future,” Hagnauer said. “We just see that as a boost for us.”
But people shouldn’t associate the city just with steel, Hagnauer said. It’s also a thriving commercial and retail center that draws consumers from all around. The city of 32,000 almost doubles in population when consumers from surrounding communities –Pontoon Beach, Madison, Venice and Mitchell –come to Granite City to shop, dine and for leisure, with even more potential to draw from across the river.
“We think that’s just a prime location coming … out of Missouri and into Illinois,” he said. “With North County and the accessibility there, and downtown, we think that (Illinois 3) corridor should just explode.”
Contact reporter Will Buss at wbuss@bnd.com or 345-7822, ext. 24.
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