Downtown demolition

Springfield City Council members gave preliminary approval Feb. 14 to $600,000 in tax-increment financing revenues to pay for almost one-third of a $1.9 million project in which Horace Mann Educators Corp. would tear down two dilapidated buildings near its main campus.

The council voted unanimously at its committee-of-the-whole meeting to put the Horace Mann project on its consent agenda for the Feb. 21 meeting. Items on that agenda are not debated individually and routinely are approved as a group.

The targeted buildings at 622 and 618 E. Washington St. would be demolished after the removal of asbestos to make way for green space and more than 20 parking spaces, according to Don Carley, who is head of facilities for Horace Mann as well as executive vice president and general counsel.

Horace Mann doesn’t view the proposal as a “parking project,” he said. “It’s a beautification project.” The two buildings – each three to four stories tall – have been vacant for more than 10 years, Carley told council members.

The buildings are immediately west of the historic three-story Witmer-Schuck building, which dates to the 1860s. Horace Mann acquired the Witmer-Schuck building more than a year ago and has spent more than $1 million to renovate the site, Carley said.

The first floor is for Hageman Family Insurance, a Horace Mann-affiliated agency that is operated by Katie Hageman.

The upper two floors have been developed into four furnished apartments as temporary housing for visiting corporate executives and for newly hired Horace Mann employees, Carley said.

Each floor covers between 2,500 and 3,000 square feet, he said.

Carley noted that Horace Mann, a publicly traded national company, purchased companies in New Jersey, Texas and Wisconsin in the past four years.

The $1.9 million remediation and demolition project at 622 and 618 E. Washington St. would include the purchase of 618 E. Washington St. and wouldn’t move forward without the proposed TIF funds, Carley and Mayor Jim Langfelder said. Horace Mann already paid $80,000 to acquire 622 E. Washington St., but TIF can still be used for remediation and demolition of that property.

The buildings are “not in a condition where they can be revitalized,” Carley said.

The $600,000 in TIF funds would be reimbursed to Horace Mann over a six-year period, with $100,000 flowing to the company each year, according to the company’s proposal.

TIF funds for capital improvements in the downtown area are generated by incremental increases in property taxes in the Central Area TIF district.

The parking spaces to be created would be used by residents of the Witmer-Schuck building, and some would be leased to other downtown businesses, Carley said. Spaces also would be available for free parking at nights and weekends, though those details still are being worked out, he said.

Carley said the project would add to the downtown’s amenities.

“Horace Mann is very committed to downtown Springfield,” he said. “We’ve been here for almost 80 years. The company and our employees take enormous pride … in the campus.”

Carley said all of Horace Mann’s spending at 628 E. Washington, at the southwest corner of Washington and Seventh streets, has been paid for without city assistance. The same is true for the more than $5 million in improvements that Horace Mann has made at its downtown campus in recent years.

Those improvements include the campus’ pond, where work should be completed by early May, Carley said.

Horace Mann’s properties in Springfield have contributed more than $5 million to the city’s TIF program since 1997, he said.

This article appears in Wedding.