ALTON,Ill.- “If you rehab it, they will come.”

State Senator Chris Belt borrowed the phrase from “Field of Dreams” during a Monday afternoon event to celebrate three Metro East communities awarded with Rebuild Illinois grants as part of a larger announcement of $106 million for projects across the state. 

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was in town for the announcement.

AltonWorks will receive $3 million to go toward its project to renovate the former Wedge Bank building on Broadway and turn it into the Wedge Innovation Center incubator. The project is described as a $21 million “social impact, high-tech business incubator, accelerator,” which would also serve as a “digital hub” in the area with the goal of bringing higher-wage jobs to the city. It would also have co-working space, a restaurant and a rooftop venue.

The Hollywood phrase carries some irony since the city’s redevelopment efforts were highlighted on a Hulu TV series several years ago. 

Since 2019, AltonWorks has played a key role in charting the city’s redevelopment prospects, which came to an abrupt pause with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020.

AltonWorks co-founder John Simmons said the group has been working largely behind the scenes “making plans”, but told an audience Monday that “Our passion for and commitment to Alton is as fierce as ever.” 

“We want Alton to be a place where individual entrepreneurs and investors can realize their dreams, have access to state of the art technology and feel like they belong to a caring community,” he said.

The hope for the continuation of that work can be seen in handwritten notes from community members on the walls inside AltonWorks’ office.

“Alton has a rich and complex history. The city’s inhabitants are great at recognizing the value of history to promote community engagement, tourism and other entrepreneurial endeavors,” one note said. “But now the stars have aligned for major redevelopment efforts. Hopefully Alton’s architectural and cultural history can be an important factor in those efforts.”

“If you reinvest it, they will come and when you see these types of buildings, historic buildings full of charm,” Sen. Belt said. “They’re so inviting and so accommodating, why would you want to knock them down, why would you want to get rid of them. Let’s build them up, let’s reinvest in them.”

“It takes vision to put together a plan. These renderings are a manifestation of that vision. But it takes time, effort and capital to make those plans come true,” Gov. Pritzker told Spectrum News.

“It's great to look at the renderings, but wait till you see it when it's finished, it's going to be even better than that,” he said.

The city of Collinsville will receive $1.8 million for work on the St. Louis Road and Collinsville Road corridor. The city of Edwardsville will also see Main Street improvements through the Rebuild Illinois award.