A spokeswoman for Gundaker tells GlobeSt.com that the firm plans to purchase 65 acres of the project for the commercial developments, though 22 acres will be set aside for a new elementary school for the Mascoutah Community Unit School District, to be funded with TIF money. J2K, with money lent by Reliance Bank, will buy the rest of the property to build 268 single-family homes, priced between $170,000 to $275,000.

Gundaker plans to spend $76 million to build 96 senior housing units, 75,000 sf of service-orientated retail (dry cleaners, nail shops, etc.) and 60,000-sf of office space for professional or medical tenants, the spokeswoman says. About 28 acres of the property will be left for green space, she says. The project should be finished by 2012, if construction begins next spring.

The area is a "hotbed," she says, especially being less than a mile north of THF Realty's 450,000-sf Green Mount Commons center in Belleville, anchored by a Wal-Mart and Lowe's. "This area has seen substantial growth," the spokeswoman says. "The suburb of Belleville is a lot more well-known, but Shiloh is close to Scott Air Force Base. Also, southwest Illinois has a lot more land left to develop than St. Louis, there's not a lot left there." She says the community has been supportive of the project, providing incentives to help with site remediation for the pockets of coal mines that dot the area.