Antique Co. building will become loft homes

Jim and Carol Murrow, the new owners of the building that now houses the Springfield Antique Company, 406 S. Avenue, are looking forward to the changes they have planned for the building.

Jim Murrow, professor of marketing and strategy at Drury University, said the upper level of the structure will be converted to three loft apartments. The Murrows will live in one, the other two will be leased, and the first floor will be remodeled and leased to a restaurant or retail tenant.

Murrow said the building's location in the downtown area is what made it a good buy.

"We were working with the real estate agent, looking at several properties they had available. That's Sam Freeman, and Sam had several properties that he was showing us, and that was one of them, and of the properties, that was the one we thought we could make work," Jim Murrow said.

"My wife and I wanted to live downtown where we could walk to a good restaurant and then walk home. We wanted to be close to the theaters, close to a lot of things, actually. It's kind of a lifestyle change for us. Our kids are out of the house, and we think it's a good investment, as well," he added.

"There is a lot of excitement downtown. It's coming back; the city's obviously making an effort down there. It's been a big turnaround, and I expect there will be a lot of people, now that it's safe to be there, who like to live an urban lifestyle, and they'll be moving into places like our lofts," he said.

Freeman agreed.

"The downtown area has become a really fun place to work and live. And a lot of people really enjoy that atmosphere, so that you don't have to get in your car at noon or whatever, in the evening. I think people from all around Springfield enjoy coming down in the evening, no longer view it as a scary place; it's now a fun place. A lot of us have worked long and hard to get to this point," Freeman said.

Freeman said that a lot of people think about buying a building downtown and renovating it, but not all of them actually do it.

"Jim and Carol really stuck with their plan, which was to thoroughly study the market, and figure out which building would be best for them. We spent a lot of time," he said. "Jim, Carol and I looked at a lot of vacant properties, a lot of developed properties, to try to give them some more ideas of what could be done."

Carol Murrow, a physician recruiter for St. John's Health System, said the couple originally thought about doing a townhouse, but later decided to do the lofts.

She said they'd had a chance to experience loft-apartment living in Europe, where they occasionally travel so that Jim can teach conferences there, and they enjoyed it.

Carol Murrow said she and her husband, who have owned a home in the Phelps Grove Park area for nearly seven years, also decided they were tired of the upkeep of a home.

"Not that we don't like grass and yards and trees, but this is a good way for Jim not to have to mow grass anymore, and for us to kind of be where things are happening downtown," she said.

Jim Murrow said one of the lofts has been rented, and there are some possibilities for the second loft. He said he doesn't yet have any commercial tenants that he can talk about at this point, because nothing formal has been decided, but he said there is a local restaurant that has expressed interest in leasing the lower level of the property.

Murrow said Charlie Bush is the contractor for the renovation project, and Laura Derrick is the architect. Work on the approximately 7,500-square-foot building will begin immediately after the Murrows take possession of the property at the end of September.

Jim Murrow said the lower level of the building could be ready by December.

He added that if the prospective restaurant client does sign on, the plan is to get them operating first, then do the rental lofts, and finally, finish the loft where he and his wife will live.

He said he hopes to have the rental lofts ready in January or February, but he and Carol probably won't move until March.

Carol Murrow said they're already excited about the move.

"This is going to be very nice, to get off work and maybe meet each other downtown at a restaurant, and walk home, so we're really looking forward to this," she said.