Belle-Clair Fairgrounds renovation plans, construction timeline released by county

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St. Clair County officials hope to complete renovations at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds, revive the county fair and bring races back to the Belle-Clair Speedway by fall 2025. The work starts later this month.

The most-anticipated upgrade has been a new racetrack. Renderings of the planned renovations provided to the Belleville News-Democrat show the track will be rebuilt in the empty southeast corner of the 200 South Belt East property, near Charles Street. Moving the track will create a new outdoor event space between it and the expo center.

The expo center will also get a new roof, redesigned exterior and upgrades to its heating, cooling and electrical systems.

The construction timeline is longer than officials initially expected.

Some of the new equipment the county wants to install, like HVAC parts and electrical panels, take about a year to arrive after orders are placed. St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern said he expects that equipment to arrive by summer 2025.

The cost of construction has also influenced the county’s renovation plans. County buildings director Jim Brede said costs are higher now than about two years ago, when the county first purchased the property and started estimating what it could afford to do at the fairgrounds.

“It’s definitely kind of shrunk some of our goals,” Brede said.

The County Board voted in late 2022 to purchase the fairgrounds with $2.3 million in federal COVID-related relief funds from the American Rescue Plan because it wanted to use the property for emergency services, as well as continued hospitality and tourism.

It was the site of more than 100,000 vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kern said if the county issued a disaster declaration for a public health emergency or natural disaster, it could use the property to provide mass vaccinations again and, potentially, temporary housing for displaced citizens.

As part of the renovations, the county is adding 20 restrooms with showers to the back of the expo center for citizens who may need to come to the fairgrounds for short-term stays during disasters. The county will also modernize the existing 1960s-era bathrooms in the building.

Kern said the goal throughout the renovations is to maintain the fairgrounds’ character. The county will restore and display some vintage pieces like the sign that sits at the front entrance and original signage recovered from the track.

The county is also installing a new fence around the property, adding greenspace and a roundabout to the parking lot to help direct traffic and building a storage garage for maintenance and track equipment.

The work starts after the May 18-19 flea market with the installation of a new roof and insulation at the expo center. Those upgrades will make the building more energy efficient, according to Bill Reichert, the architectural and planning adviser for the Public Building Commission.

Monthly flea markets will continue uninterrupted during the construction.

County continues planning for races, county fairs

Plans are not yet finalized for the design of the new racetrack because county officials are seeking additional funding for it, Kern said. He estimated the county needs another $5 million for the track, as well as new concessions and bathrooms.

That’s in addition to the $14 million the county allocated for fairgrounds renovations from its share of COVID-19 relief dollars.

Local residents with an interest in the track will have an opportunity to weigh in on what it looks like. St. Clair County is creating a group that will provide input before officials move forward with design and construction of the racetrack.

Kern said the county has the space to possibly make the track larger — from a fifth-of-a-mile to a quarter mile.

Like the racetrack design, the county is also in the process of planning what the county fairs will look like. It is forming a new fair committee to help.

Jann Severit, director of the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds Park expo center, said she also plans to travel to other county fairs this summer to see what attractions they provide.

The timing of the return of both events has been a moving target for the county.

Officials hoped the county fair could return in 2023, but pushed the date, first to 2024 and now 2025. Kern had also said his goal was for races to return to Belleville in 2024, barring any construction delays.

County fairs stopped after 2014 due to financial difficulties. Racing stopped in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking to the fairgrounds’ future

Kern said the county’s goal is for the fairgrounds to generate enough revenue to support itself. Officials plan to get there by having more events. Kern said the county wants to keep event rates close to what they are now, and it won’t charge for parking.

Last year, the fairgrounds broke even and made about $20,000 extra for the county, according to Kern.

Severit said events have been growing since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ones that need more room may expand to the new outdoor event space created by the renovations. She said she would also like to have a car show outside. Kern said he’d like to see a winter ice skating rink in the outdoor space.

The monthly flea market is one of the largest and most well-attended events. Severit said the expo center typically sees 2,000 to 10,000 visitors a weekend.

“That’s kind of an average, but we can go over that,” she said.

The chairman noted some events have made a return to the fairgrounds, including RV shows and dog shows.

“It used to be that every weekend of the year was filled,” Kern said. “Our goal now is to not only fill the weekends, but maybe during the week this facility will be able to house different events.”