Rorie Orgeron: The Kitchen is talking with buyers about its C-Street campus.
A good, old-fashioned Commercial Street revival is underway.
C-Street investors and business owners seek to honor the scarred brick buildings that have felt the rumble of countless passing trains over the decades. Financial backers are seeing a renewed promise in the street since business has picked up for existing shops and restaurants.
Joe Hosmer, who invested in two C-Street properties with his brother, Craig, said the area already is a restaurant and entertainment zone, and he thinks it will continue to expand.
The brothers, both attorneys, have purchased the buildings at 334 and 300 E. Commercial St. One is next to That Lebanese Place and the other across Robberson Avenue from Cafe Cusco. Although they’ve invested in properties before, Joe Hosmer said the $1 million-$2 million planned investment in the two buildings is the first to this level. Organized as Northbridge LLC, the Hosmers have taken both buildings down to the studs and pitched leases to two established restaurateurs.
One tenant signed on is Cafe Cusco co-owner Joseph Gidman, who’s planning a new restaurant dubbed Van Gogh’s Eatery at 334 E. Commercial St. With a presence on C-Street since 2013, Gidman takes his responsibility to the north-side community seriously.
“We have people come up to us constantly thanking us. The older generation of Springfield is coming back to Commercial Street and they’re grateful because it’s not falling apart,” he said.
The space across from Cafe Cusco will specialize in Mediterranean cuisine, Hosmer said, declining to disclose the tenant.
Cusco to Van Gogh
In addition to Cafe Cusco, which offers Peruvian cuisine and dishes hailing from the Andes Mountains, the world traveler opened Chabom Tea and Spices a year ago. Gidman plans on expanding it in 2017 with a bulk spice delivery service for small restaurants, and he’s also preparing to mass-produce hot sauce out of the cafe.
His new concept – a Dutch bakery, bar and restaurant – was bouncing around in his head for years before being approached by Hosmer. The name pays homage to the famous artist as well as the history of the buildings. Gidman said the buildings on Commercial Street were built when Van Gogh’s famous masterpieces were being created.
Although initially hesitant because of his other obligations, the building sold him.
“It was perfect,” he said. “Things fell into place.”
Gidman said the new restaurant will specialize in poffertjes, small pancakes prepared savory or sweet – the “Dutch answer to the French beignet,” he said.
His vision is that the restaurant would open at 10 a.m., offer a light lunch and the poffertjes and transform to upscale dining at 4 p.m. serving eel, mussels and Dutch sausage dishes, called “rookwurst.”
The concept fits with Hosmer’s vision for C-Street: an entertainment district with worldly food and a culture all its own.
Hosmer said there would be 10 small offices for rent above Van Gogh’s Eatery, along with a conference room and kitchen access.
“They’re beautiful – fully restored and several have skylights,” he said.
The brothers have plans to purchase at least two more C-Street buildings to convert into restaurants and bars.
Missouri Hotel response
At the corner of Commercial Street and Campbell Avenue is Lindberg’s Tavern, reportedly Springfield’s oldest bar having originally opened in 1870. Ryan Dock, who co-owns the business with Eric Weiler, said revenue has tripled since they introduced food last year.
He and others on C-Street consider the February closure of the Missouri Hotel homeless shelter as a trigger for more activity.
“Since the hotel has closed, people who wouldn’t otherwise have invested in Commercial Street or wouldn’t have opened up businesses have begun to flood up here,” Gidman said.
“The businesses that took the chance to be here when the Missouri Hotel was here, it didn’t hurt us. Actually, there was kind of a decent relationship between the merchants and the vagrants.”
Now, the Missouri Hotel represents big development potential.
The 3.5-acre Kitchen Inc.-owned property, a campus that extends along C-Street and includes seven buildings, is for sale for $1.3 million, according to a listing by Murney, Associates Realtors real estate agent Bart Collins.
Kitchen CEO Rorie Orgeron said investor interest has included low-income housing, hotels and apartments.
“We’ve had people that were interested that we are still in conversations with,” he said. “We just haven’t sold anything yet.”
Word on C-Street is that a multifamily housing developer is hotly pursuing the property. Representatives of TLC Properties and Bryan Properties contacted by Springfield Business Journal say they don’t know of any efforts by their companies to purchase the property.
It seems as though for every development opportunity there’s a rumor to go with it. What’s certain is progress is underway. The area has architecture firms, Springfield’s only wine bar in Q Enoteca, custom furniture by DG Stewart Hardgoods, web design and digital marketing offices, Artisan’s Oven bakery, Moon City Pub, the new addition of Moth Studios, a tattoo shop and the Savoy Ballroom. A few buildings on each block reveal current handiwork: hardwood floors being restored.
“It’s great as a city that we are taking back our historical district,” Cafe Cusco’s Gidman said.
In preparations, the city is restriping C-Street for angled parking, a move Gidman believes will add over 70 new spaces.
The addition of Van Gogh’s Eatery will take him one step closer to another plan – this one a way of contributing to the community. Gidman said chefs at the multiple restaurants with varied cultural influences can learn from each other and begin a kind of “food sister city.”
“That’s my future goal, to take all of these restaurants and use them as a training ground for international work exchange programs and to raise scholarship money and possibly send students here to other countries,” he said.
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