Twelve years later, vacant house comes full circle

A year ago, it was a political football, but April 29 it came full circle as a $1 real estate transaction.

During the administration of former Springfield mayor Jim Langfelder, George Petrilli was fined more than $46,000 by the city for failing to maintain the dilapidated property at 820 N. Sixth St. But he paid just $4,050 and had the remaining $42,000 forgiven in April 2022. He donated $2,500 to Langfelder’s campaign in January 2023, one of the largest contributions Langfelder received during the last election cycle.

Petrilli, a politically connected lawyer, signed the property over to the nonprofit land bank Enos Park Development just two days after an Illinois Times reporter made inquiries about its status. He originally acquired the distressed property from EPD in 2012 for $1, on the condition that he renovate it as a single-family, owner-occupied house. However, more than a decade later, the house remains vacant and uninhabitable. (Michelle Ownbey, Illinois Times publisher, is on the board of Enos Park Development.)

“It was time to admit defeat. When I acquired it, I lived over there and I have an appreciation for older houses,” Petrilli said. “I saw houses being left vacant, needing to be bulldozed. And then you end up with an empty lot in a less desirable neighborhood and it just kind of spirals. So, I acquired several properties and I was trying – in a larger program – to renovate them and just could never really get it off the ground. I spent some money … (but) priorities and time and money change.”

The forgiven debt did raise eyebrows among some voters who wondered just why it was waived when the house remained uninhabited.

Petrilli told IT there was no correlation between the forgiven debt and his decision to donate to Langfelder’s campaign.

“Any of the events that were listed in that article together (“Debts and donations,” March 8, 2023) – the election, the mayor, the now mayor, that house, my process with building and zoning – were not linked or had anything to do with anything,” he said. “That’s no motivator for me to do anything.”

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Petrilli is a Democratic precinct committeeman who has run for office at both the city and state level. He ran for Springfield City Council in 2007, losing the Ward 8 race to Kris Theilen by just 72 votes. In 2020, Petrilli ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois’ 18th Congressional District, losing to Republican Darin LaHood.

Petrilli is employed as the general counsel for EMS Midwest, Springfield Partners and Facilities Management and Construction, three companies owned by politically connected developer and cannabis entrepreneur Chris Stone.

When he first acquired the Sixth Street property, he was living in a rented house in the Enos Park neighborhood but shortly afterward moved to a residence on Bates Avenue, near Illini Country Club.

The house has been an eyesore for more than a decade, according to Steve Hughes, a neighbor on Sixth Street.

“You’re getting into a whole lot of politics here,” he said recently as he glanced at the two-foot-tall grass growing in front of the dilapidated house.

“He was working on it pretty steady when I first moved here,” Hughes said. “And then code enforcement showed up one day with about 15 people out there. And from that point on, he’d let it grow up, and then he’ll come over and mow it.”

Hughes said the neighborhood went through a period of rejuvenation but now he wonders about its future.

“Every time he started (repairs), there’s 10 code enforcement guys out here – men and women with their clipboards going over the shit,” he said. “It’s sad because this old neighborhood was probably going to be something and it just all of a sudden stopped and went the other direction.”

Kirk Jefferis, treasurer of Enos Park Development, said Petrilli started out with the right idea.

“I think his intentions were good when he first got the house,” Jefferis said. “But we don’t always achieve all of our intentions.”

Petrilli acknowledges that things didn’t go according to plan. “I had several setbacks,” he admitted. “I was putting money into it. (But people were) breaking in and I was having wires and materials and all kinds of stuff (stolen). …it just ended up being too much. It’s kind of tough to say you failed at something. My career as a real estate developer, I think, has come to an end.”

The deteriorating condition of the structure has been a source of continuous frustration for next-door neighbor Tijuana Jones, who says the property has attracted vagrants.

“It’s boarded, but the glass is missing. It’s concerning to us,” she said. “We’ve been here seven years – my kids were still in high school at first. I was concerned about my teenage daughter being here by herself and strange people being all around the house.”

During last year’s election, Sangamon County records showed that Petrilli owed $1,038 in back taxes on the house. Jefferis said that Petrilli provided a receipt showing the taxes were paid April 29, prior to deeding the property back to EPD. In addition, Jefferis said Petrilli also agreed to pay about $1,500 to the city to take care of previously accumulated quarterly registration fees for the boarded property.

Jefferis said Enos Park Development will now evaluate the property to determine whether the association has the capacity to hire contractors to improve the home to the point that it can be occupied or whether it should be sold to someone willing to rehabilitate the home on their own.

Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times, can be reached at sreeder@illinoistimes.com

This article appears in Liturgical Arts Festival returns to Springfield.