Council votes to spend $30M on convention center match

Springfield City Council approved the expenditure of $30 million from the Spring Forward SGF capital improvement sales tax at its meeting Aug. 25.

This represents all of the estimated proceeds from a half-cent portion of a three-quarter-cent tax passed by voters in November 2024. The money will be used to fund a new downtown convention and event center estimated to cost $175 million. 

The half-cent portion of the sales tax was approved to fund projects consistent with the city’s Forward SGF comprehensive plan. That portion of the tax will sunset in 10 years unless voters renew it.

The other quarter-cent of the tax approved in November is permanent and is dedicated to public safety, including a police and fire pension fund.

The appropriation approved by council is intended to provide a one-to-one match for a $30 million allocation from the state – on hold and requiring the approval of Gov. Mike Kehoe for release. 

Council’s decision to use all $30 million of the projected proceeds from the first year of the Spring Forward SGF tax was unanimous and was recommended by the eight-member Citizens’ Advisory Board, which was formed to make recommendations on projects to be funded by the tax. 

According to past Springfield Business Journal reporting, the tax board voted July 30 to recommend that the city apply entire $30 million to the development.

At that meeting, Tim Rosenbury, the city’s director of quality of place initiatives, explained that the city has to spend $60 million by June 10, 2026, in order for it to receive 100% of the $30 million in restricted funds appropriated by the state legislature.

“Any amount we spend less than $60 million, for every dollar that we don’t spend, we lose the opportunity to get 50 cents. We’re leaving 50 cents on the table from the state,” Rosenbury said at the time. “This is the urgency that we didn’t invite, but it’s the urgency that we’re faced with.”

To round out funding for the project, Springfield voters will also be asked to support an additional permanent 3% lodging tax on the November ballot.  

At the July Citizens Advisory Board meeting, Deputy City Manager Collin Quigley answered a question about what would happen if the governor chose not to release the $30 million and voters did not approve the lodging tax.

“It changes things. It’s a complete reevaluation,” Quigley said. “We need all those pieces. You’ve got to have it all.” 

Committee recommendation
Asked about the board’s decision to dedicate a year’s worth of tax proceeds to a single project that isn’t a top-10 Forward SGF initiative, Citizens’ Advisory Board Chair Erin Danastasio said it would be impossible for the board to satisfy every stakeholder with every project it recommends.

“We know we’re not going to hit a home run with every single one,” she said. “Not every project that we help fund is going to be something that impacts every individual or something that’s going to make everybody happy. That’s just the name of the game, unfortunately.”

However, Danastasio said the board believes the revenue the center and its attached hotel is estimated to generate will be important for the city. That’s a projected $26 million annually in new spending plus $68.7 million in net local tax revenue over a 30-year period, according to city consultant Hunden Strategic Partners Inc.The 261-page Forward SGF document, which guides the board’s funding decisions, devotes only two paragraphs to the idea of a convention center, in its chapter on economic development.

It states that throughout the Forward SGF planning process, the desire for a new convention center and hotel was expressed repeatedly by community members as a way of drawing visitors to the city to stimulate its economy and business development opportunities.

The plan recommends a convention center that is “state-of-the-art and iconic” and has a dedicated funding source, and it cautions that post-COVID-19, it should exceed health and safety requirements and accommodate virtual formats.

That’s largely it for the plan’s discussion of a convention center. The closest initiative that relates to it a center is titled “Entrepreneurial Stewardship” and calls for the city to cultivate an environment for entrepreneurship, business growth, live-work opportunities and startups.

Danastasio said the convention center will not only allow Springfield to reap economic benefits, but it will also revivify downtown.

“Downtown, in my opinion, is struggling right now,” she said. “We really need to breathe some life into downtown Springfield. If we don’t work to bring that up and elevate it, I think we’re going to struggle.”

The half-cent portion of the tax is meant to address three areas, Danastasio said: capital improvements, community and neighborhood initiatives and improvements to parks and trails.

“Capital improvements is a big one,” she said. “With Forward SGF thinking about the projects that are really forward-thinking, forward-facing, and looking at what’s going to help grow for us, I think this is one of those that can do that.”

Danastasio noted that large projects for the other two focus areas, neighborhoods and parks, would take more than a year to be shovel ready. Additionally, the move opens the door to the city being able to accept and match the state allocation, if released by Gov. Kehoe.

“It’s not only $30 million; it’s $60 million, and if we don’t have that match, it goes away,” Danastasio said. “Springfield needs to show that we’re here to play ball, and we want to be considered for future funding matches as well.”