Renovated Wilhoit Plaza draws commercial, residential tenants

Matt Miller Co. is helping to fuel the fires of downtown revitalization. The company recently unveiled Wilhoit Plaza, 300-330 S. Pershing St. The brick structure – an 83-year-old, 100,000-square-foot, multiuse building that has undergone a $15 million renovation – is the latest project for Matt Miller and partners Matthew Miller and Jeff Schrag. Wilhoit Plaza faces Pershing Street, Jefferson Avenue, Elm Street and Robberson Avenue, with retail spaces at ground level and loft apartments above.

Commercial buzz

About 50 percent of the 60,000 square feet of commercial space is leased, Matt Miller said. Commercial spaces range from 3,020 square feet to 5,731 square feet; Miller declined to disclose lease rates.

“People like to see stuff getting off the ground – for obvious reasons – before they sign on,” Matt Miller said. “I’m just really thankful for the vision of the commercial tenants that have believed in us and signed on early.”

To date, those tenants are Conco Cos., Gracie’s Bridal and Special Occasion, Grandaddy’s Que & More, Planet Smoothie, Quizno’s Subs and Ophelia’s, a tapas and wine bar. Tapas, which is popular in Europe, involves small dishes of food, similar to appetizers, that are passed around a table, said Ophelia’s owner Tom Muetzel, who has been in the wine and spirits business for about 21 years and has watched the continued growth of downtown Springfield.

“Finally, once the stadium went in, you could really see Springfield get over the hump. You could see legitimate investments starting to happen down there, and people really reacting favorably to it,” Muetzel said.

Wilhoit Plaza was attractive, he said, because of the on-site parking and a patio area with plenty of outdoor seating.

“Actually, we started off looking for something much smaller,” Muetzel said. “But once I saw everything that this particular location had to offer, we went ahead and broke all the piggy banks, and decided to go ahead and do it.”

Downtown will see a surge in its commercial profits and residential population, Muetzel said, if business owners learn to accommodate a more sophisticated group of people. “The demographic we’re shooting for tends to be educated, affluent, and they spend money,” Muetzel said. “I think that’s the crowd that needs to be attracted to the downtown area, for investment purposes, to see the downtown continue to become successful.”

Jay Hickman chose Wilhoit Plaza to house his Planet Smoothie franchise because of its proximity to the YMCA and local universities.

The space was larger than he needed, and the rent was higher than locations outside of downtown, he said, but the benefits outweighed risks.

“I’m a big supporter of downtown. ... It’s about to take off,” said Hickman, co-owner of downtown piano bar Ernie Biggs. “It’s looking really good for everybody that’s down here.”

Lofty living

All 32 of the lofts in Wilhoit Plaza were leased within two weeks, Matt Miller said, before the drywall had even been hung.

Missouri State University student Michael Paine and two roommates are among the loft-dwellers at Wilhoit Plaza.

Due to construction delays, they had to move in 11 days later than planned, Paine said, and other tenants are still waiting for their lofts to be completed.

“We wanted downtown, but we still wanted to be close to campus,” Paine said. “So we felt like this was a really good location.”

Miller noted that he and his partners are big believers in downtown, and he said that Wilhoit Plaza has offered solid evidence that the momentum downtown is here to stay.

“The speed that our lofts leased-out at, and the amount of interest that we have, and the amount of leasing that we’ve done so far on commercial space, makes us really ambitious about downtown Springfield,” Miller said.

On the horizon

Matt Miller Co. has several projects in the works, but Miller said it’s best not to discuss them publicly, during the early stages of development and financing.

He did say the company finally closed the deal to purchase property that’s been under contract for more than a year – a collection of seven buildings at the corner of Mill Street and Campbell Avenue known as the Ice House. Several of the historic buildings are working cold-storage facilities that have housed beer and frozen pizzas.

Plans for the six-acre complex are still being laid out and should be released in about 60 days. Ice House, Miller said, will be a multiuse development similar to Wilhoit Plaza. Interior demolition will start in about 30 days, he said, and tenants should be in operation in about 18 months. [[In-content Ad]]