Yahoo Finance New details emerge about DG Market planned for the former Fischer’s site in Belleville
The Belleville City Council voted 14-1 Monday to approve site plans to construct a DG Market at 2100 W. Main St. in Belleville’s Ward 2.
And I have some details for you about what the project plans entail.
A March 13 letter from Matt Adas, assistant project manager at ARC Design Resources, to Economic Development Director Clifford Cross outlines many of the details.
Dollar General will use 1.47 acres of the 2.93-acre lot to build the 10,640-square-foot store and a parking lot that will accommodate 35 vehicles (including two ADA-compliant spaces), the letter states. The store will be on the site where Fischer’s restaurant once stood.
The construction will be for Dollar General’s new “C-prototype” store design, which was first released in summer 2023.
The layout will be just like the Freeburg DG Market location and will include a 8,513-square-foot sales floor.
The remaining building space will provide an office, two restrooms and an inventory/storage area, all on one end of the building.
DG Market is like a souped up version of a standard Dollar General. DG Market will offer merchandise similar to what customers can buy at a standard store, plus fresh produce and meat products. Other merchandise includes household items, hygiene products and beauty supplies, baby supplies, pet supplies, toys, school and office supplies, seasonal items, and packaged goods that include non-perishable and frozen items.
The proposed store hours will be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Pending approvals and permit acquisition, construction is slated to begin this summer with an opening date for fall or winter 2024, according to the letter.
DG Market Pages From Site Plans by Jennifer Green on Scribd
Discussion at council meeting
Before the vote Monday, an interesting conversation took place among the council members that included comments from one alderwoman on why she feels the project should be rejected.
Ward 2 Alderwoman Jamie Eros said that part of her reason for not wanting the DG Market is that Belleville already has enough dollar stores.
“There’s already plenty of the dollar everythings in Belleville,” she said, mentioning Dollar General, as well as Family Dollar and Dollar Tree.
Family Dollar and Dollar Tree are owned by Dollar Tree, Inc.
Eros also said that in researching Dollar General, she found a lot of negative information about the company, including lawsuits and their business model.
Mayor Patty Gregory asked Eros if she visited the Freeburg store.
Eros replied that she did, and despite the quality of that particular store, “the company is still the same.”
“I’d rather see an empty lot than another Dollar General,” she said.
Not everyone shared her view.
Ward 3 Alderman Scott Ferguson said he visited Freeburg’s DG Market on Monday before the meeting, hoping to come back to say “not a chance” to the proposed Belleville store.
Instead, he complimented Freeburg’s store.
“It was nice, tidy … groceries were great,” he said.
He spoke to customers in the store’s parking lot and learned that they came from the Eckert’s area of Belleville and think the Freeburg store is convenient.
Ward 1 Alderwoman Lillian Schneider saw Eros’ point, referencing Dollar General stores at Wade Square and next to Schnucks on Carlyle Avenue and their lack of cleanliness.
Schneider feels that actual grocery stores are needed, not Dollar General.
She said there are no grocery stores in that part of town and plenty of dollar stores.
“We do need to get a grocery store on the west end, especially with the absence of Ruler Foods,” said Cross.
(There is a Schnucks on North Belt West.)
He said that the city spoke to multiple grocers that are starting to look at the west end of town. But the site in question doesn’t get the traffic necessary to accommodate a full grocery store.
Dollar General initially proposed a standard store location, according to Cross.
He said the city informed Dollar General about what’s going on at the nearby former Lindenwood Belleville campus, including the Southwestern Illinois College Police Academy and local foot traffic.
Dollar General was encouraged to take advantage of that and build a DG Market as opposed to a standard store.
Cross also shared with the council that Dollar General is willing to donate the unused south end of the lot to the city for other uses and mentioned a driver training facility for the academy on the Southwestern Illinois Justice & Workforce Development campus.
“They’ve got a built-in clientele there with young cadets at the police academy that will be using that,” said Gregory in reference to the conversion of the former Lynx Lodge next door.
“We want something that’s a good fit for that neighborhood,” said Cross.
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I contacted Dollar General asking for comments about the new project and a response to Eros’ comments from the meeting. Here is the response I received:
“We opened our first store in Belleville approximately 32 years ago in 1992, and during the past three decades, we have been proud to provide affordable access to products customers trust and depend on Dollar General to carry,” wrote a spokesperson for Dollar General Corporation Media Relations in a statement to the BND.
“Our customers are at the center of all that we do, and meeting their needs is our top priority when choosing store locations. In selecting store sites, we take a number of factors into consideration, carefully evaluating each potential new store location to ensure we can continue to meet our customers’ price, value and selection needs.
“We believe the addition of each new store provides positive economic benefits including additional access to affordable products for customers; the creation of new jobs for local residents and career development opportunities for our employees; the generation of additional tax revenue for the City; and the ability for local nonprofits, schools and libraries to apply for literacy and education grants through the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.”
About Dollar General
Dollar General has more than 500 stores in Illinois.
Fresh produce is now available in more than 5,000 stores in the U.S., according to a January 2024 release from Dollar General.
For more information about Dollar General, visit dollargeneral.com.
Reporter Mike Koziatek contributed to this report.
