Deteriorating buildings in the 600 block of East Washington Street in Springfield’s historic district could be stabilized for $761,000 and marketed to potential developers rather than be torn down to create a parking lot, members of Downtown Springfield Heritage Foundation said March 6. The foundation unveiled its proposal at a meeting of the Springfield Historic Sites Commission, the advisory committee of people appointed by the mayor.
Members of the commission, some saying they didn’t have enough information or didn’t see it as their role, declined the foundation’s request to take a stand opposing the proposed demolition of the buildings at 618 and 622 E. Washington.
Foundation board president Scott Troehler and foundation board member Bruce Ferry said they were disappointed that the panel decided not to take a stand.
They said the foundation still hopes to work with Horace Mann Educators Corp. on alternatives to demolition after the publicly traded company received Springfield City Council approval Feb. 21 for $600,000 in city subsidies to help pay for the $1.9 million project.
“Downtown Springfield is littered with surface parking lots,” Ferry, of Ferry and Associates Architects, told the commission.
A street lined with surface parking lots “creates disillusionment for the urban streetscape” and makes pedestrians less willing to walk down that street to reach restaurants or other parts of downtown, Ferry said.
After learning that the two East Washington structures – each 100 years old or more – were within the Central Springfield National Register Historic District, Ward 8 Ald. Erin Conley said she would ask the council March 7 to reconsider its Feb. 21 vote.
Conley previously voted in favor of using money from the Central Area tax increment financing district to subsidize Horace Mann’s purchase of 618 E. Washington and help fund demolition of the deteriorating buildings. In their place, Horace Mann would construct 28 surface parking spaces and green space.
Horace Mann already owns the building at 622 E. Washington. The address actually represents two connected buildings with addresses at 622, 624 and 626 E. Washington, and the oldest was constructed in 1877, according to foundation member Steve Myers.
An attorney for Horace Mann, Anthony Schuering, previously told the council that the buildings were not in the historic district. He later apologized for the mistake.
The foundation members, in their presentation to the Historic Sites Commission, estimated it would cost $275,000 to buy the building at 618 E. Washington and repair roofs and remove mold and asbestos at both addresses.
It would cost an additional $486,000 for facade renovation at 622 E. Washington and for demolition of the back side of that building to create eight parking spaces for Horace Mann’s use, the foundation estimated.
The stabilization, which includes removing the 1970s-era facade on 622 E. Washington to reveal the original facade from the late 1800s, could be financed with TIF funds, Ferry said. The foundation hasn’t made a formal proposal to the city on an alternate plan for TIF funding.
The stabilization and pause in demolition would give the foundation a chance to attract potential developers willing to fully restore and occupy the buildings, which have been vacant for more than 10 years, Ferry said.
But Daniel Hamilton, a Brown Hay & Stephens attorney representing Horace Mann, told the commission that the company wants to proceed with the project as approved by the City Council.
He said he didn’t have the authority to comment on the foundation’s building stabilization proposal, which would require cooperation from Horace Mann and city officials to move forward.
He said Horace Mann wasn’t briefed ahead of the commission meeting on the proposal. Foundation members said they didn’t have time to do so and have been scrambling to come up with a plan to help the buildings avoid the wrecking ball since they learned of Horace Mann’s intentions several weeks ago.
Hamilton said Horace Mann already has spent almost $2 million to purchase and renovate the historic three-story Witmer-Schuck building at 628 E. Washington. That building is at the southwest corner of East Washington and South Seventh streets and is immediately east of the two structures the company wants to raze.
Horace Mann has characterized the proposed demolition as a “beautification project.”
The Witmer-Schuck building, originally constructed in the 1860s, now houses a Horace Mann-affiliated insurance agency on the first floor.
The building includes a total of four furnished apartments on the second and third floors as temporary housing for visiting corporate executives and newly hired employees.
The parking spaces would be used by residents and those who work in the Witmer-Schuck building. Some spaces would be leased to other downtown businesses, and Hamilton said the spots also would be available for free parking on nights and weekends.
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer at Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or twitter.com/DeanOlsenIT.
This article appears in A push to diversify.
If people have not noticed yet, there are no businesses that wish to locate to a ghost town. Stop saving every building downtown by thinking of the past. Start putting action for the future to change the downtown by giving opportunity. Clean up the downtown, get rid of the old charge on all councils and boards for Sangamon County and Springfield.
There is a reason why myself and so many others have left Sangamon county, let alone Illinois. It was not for taxes and bad weather.
The one-way streets did an incalculable amount of damage to downtown Springfield, as did the elimination of angled parking on all 4 sides of the Old Capitol square.
Restoration of rational, 2-way streets to the downtown, plus the restoration of angled parking to at least 3 sides of the Old Capitol square would be a phenomenal start to revitalizing the town.
A parking lot is a “beautification project”? It’s certainly worthy of TIFF district funds. 🙄🤣