Grocery store anchors ‘aggressive’ economic revitalization plan in this metro-east town

Construction is set to begin this fall in Venice on a variety of development projects — including a grocery store and health care clinic — to help revitalize the community.

The goal of the effort is simple: bring essential services and business to the town of about 1,500, said Ed Hightower, a former Edwardsville school superintendent and Big Ten basketball referee who’s leading the endeavor and financing the grocery store.

“These are the essential things that you would say that people need in order to survive,” Hightower said. “These are things that low-income communities are struggling with every day.”

Hightower said he became involved in the project after longtime Mayor Tyrone Echols, who was first elected to lead the historically Black town in 1979, asked him to help. Echols describes the projects as “a dream come true” for Venice.

“It puts a lifeblood into a community that was relatively stagnant,” Echols said.

After a second set of projects is complete, Hightower and Echols believe the economic development at the center of Venice will spur growth there and in the surrounding communities of Brooklyn and Madison, which have also fallen on hard times.

They believe Venice’s location — along Illinois Route 3 and just a few minutes from downtown St. Louis, thanks to the McKinley Bridge — will make growth possible.

Like many towns along the Mississippi River, Venice has slowly lost population over the years. At its peak in 1960, the town had a population north of 6,000, according to the U.S. census.

Brooklyn, to the south, and Madison, to the north, have similar trends.

The median household income in Venice stands at roughly $34,000, and 38.1% of the town’s residents live under the poverty line, according to the 2022 American Community Survey of the Census Bureau.

First project already underway

Venice’s school building was condemned in 2020. Demolition and other site work has already begun on a $26 million pre-K-8 school building , which district leaders said will provide a needed learning environment for the community.

At future development sites, demolition is scheduled for later this year. That will be funded by a $3.1 million grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

The grocery store, which will be built adjacent to city hall and the town’s library, is needed in the community, Hightower and Echols said.

The closest grocery stores in Illinois are at least four miles away in Granite City, making the community a food desert. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture , urban communities with a grocery store or supermarket more than one mile away are considered deserts.

“When you have a town that probably has quite a few seniors with transportation problems, this can really give it a shot in the arm,” Echols said.

Currently, community leaders are awaiting word from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity regarding their $3.5 million grant application to the Illinois Grocery Initiative program. The budget priority for Gov. J.B. Pritzker allocated $20 million to help seed grocery stores in food deserts in urban or rural parts of the state.

While the city will own the grocery store’s building, Venice will lease it for free to Hightower, who will be the primary investor.

The health care facility, which will be operated by the Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation based in Sauget, will be built just south of the grocery store.

The new clinic will be built on property formerly owned by the Illinois Department of Transportation. Last December, Pritzker signed a bill from the General Assembly that allowed Venice to buy the property from the state agency for $1.

“This is something that’s just really much needed in that community,” said state Sen. Chris Belt, D-Swansea, who sponsored the legislation.

A dollar store is the final project in the first phase slated to start construction by the fall.

The next phase of the revitalization project will include the construction of 40 affordable homes just southwest of downtown Venice, a child care center, a career and vocational training center and a new bike trail. A funeral home, owned by a private investor, is also part of the plan.

Hightower said he’s waiting to hear from the Illinois Housing Development Authority on tax credits to help build the homes. Hightower and officials are also looking into funding opportunities for the vocational center and the child care center.

If all goes as planned, the second phase will be completed by the end of 2026. Hightower said he hopes projects in the first phase will be finished by the end of 2025.

“It’s an aggressive plan,” he said. “But if you don’t set milestones and say, ‘We’re going to adhere to them,’ then you don’t get it done. You continue to procrastinate.”