A Quad Cities developer is considering an area on the northern edge of downtown, near the medical district, for a new apartment building that would be aimed at providing housing for students.
The five-story building at the intersection of Fourth and Madison streets would have 70 units with room for 90 tenants. There would be mixed uses on street level, including a rental office, a fitness center and possibly retail space, according to Kelly Young, director of operations for Bluffstone LLC of Bettendorf, Iowa, which has built 13 student housing complexes in the Midwest since 2007.
“Springfield’s a great community,” Young said. “We’re excited to be a part of what you’ve got going on downtown.”
The city Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to consider the proposal next Wednesday. Assuming the city gives the go-ahead and financing is complete, Bluffstone hopes to begin construction by late summer or early fall and open the building in the fall of 2016, Young said.
If the plan comes to fruition, it would be the biggest residential development downtown in decades.
“It means a great deal,” said Paul O’Shea, city planning coordinator. “They’ve had several developments that seem to fit into this type of environment and this type of clientele. It’s a good fit for Springfield.”
Young said the University of Illinois Springfield has already approved Bluffstone as a certified housing program, which allows the company to market housing on campus. The company has also spoken with officials at the Southern Illinois School of Medicine. Medical school officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Derek Schnapp, UIS spokesman, confirmed that the developer has spoken with university officials. He said he doesn’t know whether UIS would contribute money to the project.
“I don’t think we’ve gotten that far yet,” Schnapp said. “They’ve only reached out to us and the SIU School of Medicine about their thoughts for student housing.”
Young said that Bluffstone doesn’t plan on asking for money from UIS or the medical school.
Schnapp said that UIS students have a need for downtown housing, even though the university’s campus is miles away.
“We have a lot of students who are interns that intern downtown,” Schnapp said. “We have a lot of students who don’t live on campus who look for housing in Springfield or in downtown Springfield. They intern at the capitol or state agencies. We’ve had a lot of interest from students wishing we had downtown housing.”
The asking price for the site, now a parking lot, is $699,300, according to Albanese Realty, the listing agent. Union Pacific railroad tracks are nearby, but O’Shea said that he doesn’t believe trains, or the potential for railroad consolidation on Third Street, will be a factor in Bluffstone’s plans.
“There’s a lot of people living in that same position in the rail corridor right now,” O’Shea said. “Everyone says ‘I get used to it.’”
Bluffstone’s housing projects include complexes for students in Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin and Illinois, according to media reports and the company’s website. Apartments include studios as well as single bedrooms and multi-bedrooms, with a focus on serving community colleges and small universities. The company typically sets up leasing offices during spring semesters, before complexes are complete, and students move in at the start of fall semesters.
There have been some hiccups.
Some complexes have not been completed in time for students to move in when school starts. In Wisconsin, students last year didn’t move into a complex at a University of Wisconsin campus until Halloween, according to a January report in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The newspaper reported that there have also been code violations in at least one complex in Wisconsin, and students last year moved into two incomplete buildings that didn’t have occupancy permits from building inspectors. Construction liens filed on one project by contractors who claimed they hadn’t been paid totaled about $300,000, the Milwaukee newspaper reported.
Young said that reports of students moving into Wisconsin complexes without occupancy permits aren’t accurate. Buildings had, at least, temporary occupancy permits, she said. Construction liens were a case of a general contractor not paying subcontractors, she said.
“Hired the wrong guy, and we paid,” Young said. “Thankfully, we’re back in Illinois. We’re in our backyard.”
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
Here’s a link to the website of an Iowa company that has proposed building a housing complex for students in downtown Springfield: http://bluffstone.com/
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2015.
