City broadens center city redevelopment efforts to residences

Commercial redevelopment and loft apartments are only one piece of the puzzle in revitalizing center city. The residential neighborhoods surrounding the commercial center are also essential parts of the big picture, said Springfield City Manager Tom Finnie.

Community and business leaders met with Springfield city officials, including Mayor Tom Carlson, and representatives from Fannie Mae last week to consider ways of attracting higher-income families to center-city neighborhoods.

With downtown loft living increasing in popularity and a recent surge in building redevelopment, the city is focusing its attention on downtown's surrounding neighborhoods.

The city's hope is that center-city businesses can help employees become homeowners near their workplace and while improving the looks of center-city neighborhoods ultimately grow the area tax base.

Employer assistance

Fannie Mae representatives Bill Brown and Sandy Goodwin from the Kansas City partnership office informed Springfield leaders how its Employer Assisted Housing Program has helped to redevelop areas across the country.

Large employers like hospitals and higher education institutions from Kansas City to Washington, D.C., provide employee benefits such as loans, grants, matched savings or education to promote homeownership near the workplace with much success, Goodwin said.

Jack Pugh, former president of the West Central Neighborhood Alliance, hopes the program takes off here. Pugh is serving as interim executive director of the recently formed Urban Neighborhoods Alliance, a nonprofit organization focused on center-city neighborhood rehabilitation.

He considers employer-assisted housing one of four foundational programs of the new organization.

"When you do that you revitalize the old neighborhoods and you also provide a market to sustain the development in center city," Pugh said. "That particular program is an example of how we're trying to attract families and individuals with greater income. We want to see these neighborhoods become mixed income living."

Such neighborhoods as Midtown, Grant Beach, Woodland Heights and West Central should benefit, but homeownership assistance could spread to UNA's complete target area which is bound by Kearney Street on the north, National Avenue on the east, Grand Street on the south and Kansas Expressway on the west.

The other core UNA projects are a property acquisition and remodeling program, a below-market rate remodeling loan program, and a first-time homebuyer down payment and closing cost assistance program.

"I would like to stay here until these foundation programs are in place," Pugh said, adding that it may take until spring to accomplish that.

Pugh, a retired Navy captain and retired small-business owner, was hired by and answers to the 19-member UNA board of directors. About half of the board members are community business leaders and the other half is made up of representatives from the four participating neighborhood associations: Midtown, Grant Beach, Woodland Heights and West Central. There also are members from the Sherman Avenue Project Area Committee.

UNA funding

The Urban Neighborhoods Alliance's first-year operations are funded by a $50,000 contract with the city, according to Brendan Griesemer, principal planner with the city. Griesemer serves as liaison between the city and UNA.

The one-year contract pays for the director's salary of $25,000 and other start-up costs. Additional city funds will be available through a $600,000 line of credit recently authorized by City Council for rehabilitation of dilapidated buildings in center city. Pugh said UNA would use the funds for property acquisitions; however the line of credit is available for other groups and individuals.

Drury University is contributing a $100,000 revolving fund for property acquisition and rehabilitation near the school. Other funds may come from a $75,000 Missouri Department of Economic Development grant, which UNA recently applied for.

Its target area comprises the Community Development Block Grant area surrounding center city and its Kearney-National-Grand-Kansas boundary.

Pugh said UNA is distinctly different than Urban Districts Alliance, it's commercial counterpart from which it leases office space at 304 W. McDaniel St.

"Urban Neighborhoods Alliance is a separate neighborhood development corporation," he said. UDA Executive Director "Bill Compere and I talk and bounce ideas off of each other a great deal. And as we both get going in rehabilitating buildings I'm sure we will commiserate together a lot."

The program that will facilitate UNA-UDA collaboration, Pugh said, is the employer-assisted housing program. He sees the universities, hospital systems, Springfield Public Schools and city or county governments as prime candidates for pulling employees into center city.

"You can't put some bars and restaurants in downtown and build a baseball stadium or an ice skating rink and expect that growth to be sustained by a handful of loft apartments or the people out in the suburbs willing to drive into town," Pugh said. "You've got to have a bigger market than that."

Compere said that although UDA is commercial-based and UNA is residential-based, they have the same overall goals: "We want a more vibrant neighborhood which helps support a commercial area."

Should the program evolve here, the Fannie Mae Foundation, a housing financier focused on low- and middle-income families, would partner with the interested entities to provide financial assistance. Fannie Mae's Brown said the company already has about $1 billion invested in the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area mainly through personal mortgages. It has funded $443 million in new mortgages here this year alone.

"We have a pretty significant stake in the Springfield area," Brown said. "We want to take the investment into different areas."

Goodwin said Springfield's 68 percent homeownership rate drops below 50 percent in center city.