It’s official.
The Glik’s department store chain will move its corporate headquarters to Collinsville after more than 60 years in Granite City.
Company and city officials broke ground Wednesday with The Korte Co., based in Highland, which will construct a 40,000-square-foot building to house Glik’s offices and a new distribution and order-fulfillment center.
“What an unbelievable community Collinsville is,” said CEO Jeff Glik, standing next to a long, narrow mound of dirt with shovels neatly lined up. “You guys have built a great community, and we’re proud to have our future home be in Collinsville.”
The $5.3 million building will sit on nearly four acres along ABC Parkway, north of Horseshoe Lake Road, about halfway between Interstate 255 and Illinois 157.
The headquarters relocation will move about 60 existing jobs from Granite City to Collinsville and possibly create up to 20 new jobs, Jeff Glik said last month, when the Collinsville City Council agreed to provide about $841,000 worth of incentives if the company built in a tax-increment-financing district and enterprise zone.
At that time, Jeff Glik wouldn’t publicly commit to the move because, he said, the company was still crunching numbers and contracts hadn’t been signed for construction services.
The new building is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Office with a window
About 100 people showed up for the groundbreaking Wednesday morning. It was windy but sunny with blue skies, and the mood was celebratory.
“This is a dream come true … but really I’m most excited about getting a window in my office,” said Senior Vice President Jim Glik, Jeff’s brother, prompting laughter and applause from the crowd.
Glik’s operates 70 stores in 12 states, including those in Granite City, Edwardsville, Highland, Litchfield and Sparta in the metro-east. It has about 650 employees. Officials have announced no plans to close the Granite City store on Nameoki Road as part of the headquarters relocation.
On Wednesday, Jeff Glik praised Collinsville City Manager Mitch Bair and other city officials for being so welcoming and helpful when the company approached them about the idea of moving to Collinsville.
Todd Korte, president and CEO of The Korte Co., and Collinsville Mayor John Miller also spoke at the groundbreaking.
“What a great day for the city of Collinsville and the Glik’s family business, a merger of a great family with great employees in a great city,” Miller said.
“We thrive on customer service here in the city of Collinsville, and your testament to what Mitch did and how the city treated you should be a testament to that effect. We know greatness when we find it, and we are so proud that … your family is going to be part of our family.”
First store opened in 1897
Glik’s is one of the oldest retailers in the United States and remains a family business. At the groundbreaking, Jeff Glik talked about the company’s history.
His great-grandfather, Joseph Glik, an immigrant from Russia, used a horse and buggy to sell goods in Nebraska before he fell in love, moved to St. Louis and opened a downtown store in 1897. The company started with menswear and later expanded to clothing, shoes and accessories for women and children.
Joseph Glik’s son, Morris, father to Jeff and Jim, later took over the company. Its headquarters moved to Madison in the early 1900s, then Granite City in the 1950s.
“(My father) was truly a great man,” Jeff Glik said. “He was a great mentor, and his spark and his smile is with each and every one of us, if not every day, every other day.”
Elliot Glik recently joined the business, representing the fifth generation.
The $841,000 in incentives includes $600,000 in TIF funds that the city will pay on completion of the building. The company also will save about $108,000 in state sales taxes on construction materials because of its location in the Madison County Discovery Enterprise Zone, Bair said last month.
“We’re also giving them a 10-year, 50 percent rebate on online sales-tax collections. That will amount to about $133,000.”
Collinsville officials expect the Glik’s development to generate about $266,000 in sales-tax revenue to the city and $98,000 in property-tax revenue over 10 years, according to a city report.
Teri Maddox has been a reporter for 35 years, joining the Belleville News-Democrat in 1990. She also teaches journalism at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. She holds degrees from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
