Dungeons of Doom to be revamped

A downtown building is leaving doom behind and pursuing a new destiny, that of a historic property.

The former Dungeons of Doom building at 331 S. Camp-bell has been acquired by Far-mers & Merchants LLC from Dungeons of Doom LLC, the corporate entity of Randy and Renaye Livingston.

The two-story, 6,200-square-foot building, previously the site of a Halloween season haunted house, will be renovated into retail and office space.

But the larger issue behind the redevelopment is the building's historic designation, said Sam Freeman, owner/broker of Center City Development Co., who sealed the deal on the building Feb. 15.

"This thing actually closed and was sold because of the incentive provided by that historic designation," Freeman said. "That was actually a contingency in the contract."

Historic district

The building is part of a newly nominated historic district called the West Walnut Street Commercial Historic District. It already has been ap-proved by the Missouri Ad-visory Council on Historic Pre-servation and is under review by the U.S. Department of the In-terior in hopes it will be added to the National Register of His-toric Places. A decision is ex-pected by March 21.

Being on the National Reg-ister means the structure could qualify for a 25 percent state tax credit to help fund restoration efforts and possibly another 20 percent federal tax credit.

Those incentives have spurred several projects in and around the newly nominated district. The district includes 16 buildings surrounding the intersection of West Walnut and South Campbell.

Among those in the district are four buildings owned by Andrew and Ellen Baird and their business partner, Doug Hesterley.

The Bairds, who sponsored the district's nomination, have plans to add a total of five loft apartments on West Walnut two at 404 W. Walnut and three at 408 W. Walnut. Renovations have be-gun and Andrew Baird said the apartments should be finished by May 1.

The couple's architect is Jana Funk with Hood Rich Inc., and Nichols Con-struction Co. is the general contractor.

National Register

A nearby property that is located outside the proposed historic district has been submitted to the National Register individually. It is Dan and Melissa Scott's building at 438-440 S. Campbell.

The Scotts are renovating the former Kemper Sign Co. building into three loft apartments upstairs and retail/office space downstairs. The lofts are complete and have two signed tenants, Dan Scott said. Work on the downstairs is set to be done April 1.

Scott, an architect, is doing the architectural design while his wife Melissa designs the interior. He said the total renovation will cost around $400,000.

"Downtown living is a popular thing right now," Scott said. "It can only benefit downtown as we bring residents to the area."

While the popularity of lofts is generating demand, there is an even greater reason for such revitalization, according to Richard Burton, president of Historic Springfield Inc., who is spearheading these historic preservation efforts.

Burton is consultant to the proposed district and has prepared the building's nomination for the National Register.

Why historic?

"These residential historic districts downtown are vital to our commercial interests downtown," Burton said. "If you do this type of urban revitalization, creating our center city as an urban living environment, then you put the traffic, the appetites, the clothing needs downtown where they need to be in order to achieve our center city priorities."

Other buildings slated for rehabilitation within the district include 412 S. Campbell, owned by Nick Sibley, and 310 W. Walnut, owned by Matthew and Lori Miller, Jeff Schrag and Ron Walker.

Burton said Sibley plans to put loft apartments in there, as well.

"Very quickly there is going to be a lot of people living down there," he added. "That is very exciting."

Miller, executive director of DDEC. net, said the company is in the process of moving its office to 310 W. Walnut, and Jeff Schrag's The Daily Events is expected to occupy part of the space later this year.

Miller added that a restaurant owner has signed on to lease part of the building.

Burton said all of the buildings in the district were constructed between 1888 and 1930 and there has not been any new construction since.

According to his research, the former Dungeons of Doom building has housed many commercial enterprises, including M. Scharff & Bros. Liquor Distributors, The Parisienne Inc. ladies' ready-to-wear store, Farmers & Merchants Bank and a couple of restaurants.

"Cleaning that up is going to have a tremendous impact on the southwest gateway of center city," Burton said of the building.

Incentive

Burton, who founded his advocacy and consulting company in 1999, said Springfield now has 26 listings on the National Register, eight of which are historic districts.

The beneficial tax credits may be carried back three years preceding and carried forward for 10 years.

"The most important part of the tax credit program is that it makes it financially feasible," Baird said. "It's an economic incentive to redevelop areas like this which are blighted, basically." Baird added that banners and historic signage will be hung in the district "to bring the district together."

According to the National Park Ser-vice Web site, 73,000 listings make up the National Register of Historic Places.