Caseys to restore hotel; add restaurants downtown

|tab|

Allen Casey has come full circle.|ret||ret||tab|

Thirty years ago, the architect-cum-developer drew up plans for the owners of the Sterling Hotel on Park Central East. Casey, fresh out of architecture school worked with his dad, Harold, in their Holland Building office across the street. |ret||ret||tab|

Now Casey and his wife, Mary Lou, own both downtown buildings and are in the midst of restoring them. The Caseys plan to return fine dining to each building, with a sidewalk cafe fronting Park Central Square tied to a new restaurant on the first floor of the Holland Build-ing.|ret||ret||tab|

The restaurant will take over the space occupied by Market Square gift shop. New, cheerful green-striped awnings installed a few months ago hint of the sidewalk cafe set to open this fall. The Caseys are restoring and refurbishing. Restaurateurs will do the rest. |ret||ret||tab|

Plans for the Sterling which was once one of the "nicer, but smaller hotels" also embody of-fice space and loft apartments, Casey said. The joint projects are expected to cost about $3 million to restore and refurbish, and the fall opening may be op-timistic because "I want to make them nice, classic examples of the older kinds of spaces," said Casey, and that just takes time.|ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

The Sterling|ret||ret||tab|

Fire was a big problem in old Springfield. The Baldwin Thea-ter burned in 1909 and the land thus vacated became the site of the McDaniel Building and the Hotel Sansone, now known as The Sterling.|ret||ret||tab|

The hotel was once a gathering place for Springfield society and as the late writer Jim Billings penned in 1954, "... scores of the great and near-great of the sports and theatrical worlds" visited the Hotel San-sone, named for its first operator, Charles Sansone. |ret||ret||tab|

Sansone was a friend of John T. Woodruff, who built the black-velvet-brick hotel which opened Jan. 10, 1911. |ret||ret||tab|

Branch Rickey, the head of the St. Louis Cardinals who originally organized minor league baseball, was a regular visitor, according to Billings.|ret||ret||tab|

The new Sterling will be a mixed-use facility, Casey said, housing the Sienna Wine Bar and Grill on the first floor. It will be operated by Keith and Neletha Feummeler and their partner, Mike Bleil. Bleil was formerly executive chef at The Candlestick Inn in Branson. |ret||ret||tab|

The Caseys bought the hotel for $129,000 Nov. 28, 1998, from Howard Moore, the man for whom Allen Casey prepared the early plans.|ret||ret||tab|

Ken-Mar Construction, under Casey's direction, will work on The Sterling and the Holland Building. The two projects are expected to run about $1.8 million, which includes refurbishing the hotel's entryway which leads to the restaurant. Internal demolition is complete.|ret||ret||tab|

The red tile floor of the old restaurant is intact and just needs to be cleaned and sealed. Faint traces of decorative painting on the ceiling beams will be redone. The chandeliers have been restored and hung. Two skylights in the entryway have been revealed and open skyward to an atrium area that can be seen from each floor. |ret||ret||tab|

The second floor will house The Casey Associates office, and the third and fourth floors will each house two 1,750-square-foot loft apartments. Each will have a fireplace, wood floors, a full bath and a half-bath. If tenants wish, they may use one of the seven old claw-footed bathtubs taken from the hotel bathrooms, Ca-sey said.|ret||ret||tab|

The roof deck will have a covered pavilion for use by tenants and small restrooms will be provided. The roof has "an in-credible view" of the city, Casey said. |ret||ret||tab|

Eventually, the Caseys hope for the basement to be transformed into a piano bar. In the past, it was a rathskeller where gentlemen gathered to smoke cigars and drink. |ret||ret||tab|

Like the Holland Building, the hotel was in good condition, although it hadn't been used since 1962, when it closed in response to changing times and lack of parking. This quote from the May 2, 1962 Springfield News & Leader at the time the hotel closed, sums it up "We may bury the Sterling Hotel, but the location will rise again bigger and better than ever long live downtown Springfield!" said Larry Blanchette, former operator of the hotel.|ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

Holland acquisition|ret||ret||tab|

The Caseys acquired the Holland Building in January 2000 for $500,000 and em-barked on a journey of discovery. Their first great "find" under a drop ceiling in the en-tryway was moulding "solidly filled with ornate plaster details, none of which had been disturbed," Casey said. |ret||ret||tab|

When carpet in the corridors was lifted, "we discovered the most wonderful old classic one-inch-square white ceramic tiles ...with a real nice dark green decorative design border going all the way around, so we pulled all the carpets out of the corridors." Casey said there is "beautiful wood trim, and every floor has marble practically the full height of the corridor walls."|ret||ret||tab|

When complete, the office portion of the Holland Building will be "unique in that it has all the amenities of a new office building central heat and cooling ... and high-speed Internet wired," Casey said. Elevators and restrooms will be updated and sprinkler systems installed. Both the Holland Building and The Sterling were early fire-proof buildings and are made of sturdy cement, Casey said.|ret||ret||tab|

The Caseys' plans, fired by Allen Ca-sey's passion for city history, include development of "Peach Alley," a New Orleans style, awning-covered entryway from the Robberson alley. The entry will lead into the first floor restaurant and possibly down to a basement level piano-bar reminiscent of "Cheers."|ret||ret||tab|

Peach is the original name of Rob-berson, Casey said, and his hope is the name will be used by the eatery operator. Dinner guests, like the Holland Building tenants, will be able to park a few feet away at the 45-car lot behind the neighboring Adult Tendercare Building.|ret||ret||tab|

The basement of the Holland Building was originally designed and used as a restaurant with kitchen space. The Ca-seys plan for the kitchen to serve the sidewalk caf, the restaurant and piano-bar bistro. Market Square will move to the northwest corner of the building to catch the eye of diners on the way to the restaurant, Casey said.|ret||ret||tab|

When he and his wife bought the Holland Building, it wasn't on the market, he said, but "... since my dad had been a tenant for many years, they felt we would treat it with respect, quite honestly." And as Bob Murray Jr. said at the time, "We knew that (Casey) would maintain the building's character and keep it true to what it has been."|ret||ret||tab|

What it had been was a tribute by a loving daughter, Louise Holland Jarrett, who built it to honor her father and city leader, T.B. Holland. A major fire in 1913 destroyed most of the northeast part of the square. When the Holland Building was finished in December 1914, it was called "a Christmas gift to the city of Springfield." |ret||ret||tab|

The Holland Building is historic, according to Casey's research, because it is an early 1900's representative example of the "two-part commercial block" building. It was designed in two zones one for public or commercial spaces and one for office space. |ret||ret||tab|

Placed on the National Register of Historic Places Nov. 15, 2000, the building has terra cotta ornamentation and a softly tinted veneer. |ret||ret||tab|

The building style was influenced by beaux arts classicism, and it is highly ornamented with rusticated bands on the fifth floor sheathing, an elaborate parapet wall at the roof line and cornice brackets.|ret||ret||tab|

It was praised for its heating and ventilation system, which had individual controls for each office and a central ventilation system. The electrical system also was cited because it had five outlets in each office. |ret||ret||tab|

|ret||ret||tab|

Government help|ret||ret||tab|

It was the 45 percent tax credits that helped the most, Casey said. |ret||ret||tab|

Once the Holland Building was placed on the National Register, the financing although never an easy task was enhanced. |ret||ret||tab|

The tax credit is considered instant equity in such projects, Casey said, which is why he obtained historic registration for The Sterling. "That's what makes projects like this affordable ... by reducing the amount of loan we have to make ... it greatly reduces the debt service."|ret||ret||tab|

Facade money will be used to tuck point and clean the brick and marble and upgrade the windows.[[In-content Ad]]