Wagoner leads charge in downtown redevelopment

Craig Wagoner has been behind downtown Springfield's redevelopment for a decade and knows a thing or two about what works for center city.

Wagoner was the featured guest Tuesday at Springfield Business Journal's 12 People You Need to Know breakfast at the Clarion Hotel's Newsroom Cafe. SBJ Editor Eric Olson interviewed Wagoner in front of about 75 people.

Wagoner began his career at BKD and spent five years as an accountant, but the corporate life wasn't for him. Drawing on his experience remodeling homes with his father, Wagoner dropped the necktie - "I hate wearing a tie," he says - and picked up a hammer. He started managing student properties near Missouri State University and later began scooping up historic buildings.

"It's fun to take these old buildings and turn them back into something they used to be 100 years ago," he said, adding that he welcomes the challenge of working with historic properties. "Anybody can do a strip center."

Wagoner is responsible for some of the biggest downtown redevelopments to date - the Kresge building on the square, now home to the Park Central Branch Library; the Seville and Brentwood buildings on Walnut Street; and, most recently, the Lofts at Jordan Creek, at the busy corner of National Avenue and Chestnut Expressway.

Residential space has been his bread and butter. Occupancy rates at Wagoner's residential properties top 95 percent, he said. Where downtown stands to gain, he added, is in office space, which would draw more people in daily to support center-city businesses.

Wagoner also points to the Heer's building as a necessary piece of the downtown puzzle.

"We need Heer's done," he said. "If you look at downtown, we've been successful without it, but it's an eyesore on the square."

Wagoner - who himself lives in a 3,500-square-foot downtown loft - endeavors to never build the same loft twice, he said, and he works every building's unique features into his designs.

Despite acknowledging downtown's potential for further growth, Wagoner said the area is running out of inventory. Expansion is likely to turn to the West Meadows area and north to Commercial Street. After that, he said he may turn his eye elsewhere.

In the meantime, his next project is to develop residential and commercial space in a building he owns at 213 Olive St., across from the Heer's.

Revitalization of downtown has happened quickly, Wagoner said, and he warns people not to give up on the process early. It's not nearly over yet.

"It just started five, six, seven years ago, and so many developments have been done," he said. "I think our downtown is still growing."

SBJ's next 12 People event will feature Mary Norman, a local environmental advocate and past head of the Partnership for Sustainability program. She will be introduced Sept. 8. More information on the event is at the link below.