Heer's owner plans $15M redevelopment

A Lee's Summit developer is planning to inject $15 million into the downtown Springfield Heer's building to convert the former department store into a mixed-use property with up to 90 market-rate rental apartments.

Heer's Luxury Living LLC purchased the building from real estate investment group E and J HIDC LLC for an undisclosed amount. E and J HIDC LLC bought the building at an April 22 foreclosure auction for $960,000. Heer's Luxury Living LLC was formed two days later.

Jim Nichols, a co-owner of Heer's Luxury Living and CEO of Lee’s Summit-based Dalmark Development Group, said while many of the details have yet to be ironed out, the renovation plans include 8,000 to 12,000 square feet of retail space available on the first floor. Dalmark is seeking at least one restaurant tenant.

“We anticipate construction would take 12 to 14 months. Within the next 24 months, the doors should be open,” Nichols said.

According to DalmarkGroup.com, the company, which was founded in 2003, has 85 employees and manages 21 properties. Its portfolio includes the renovation of the Hyde Park Hotel in midtown Kansas City. Dalmark transformed the nine-story structure into the Hyde Park Apartment with the help of Federal Low Income Housing and Historic Rehabilitation tax credits. Nichols, who has more than 25 years of commercial development and property management experience, said he plans to try to utilize historic tax credits with the Heer’s renovations. He said once an incentives package is in place, construction could begin within six months.

At the May 20 City Council meeting, Springfield Economic Development Director Mary Lilly Smith introduced a bill to allow Heer's Luxury Living LLC to pay attorneys' fees to work with city staff to determine available incentives for redevelopment of the building. While the city would technically hire the law firm - Gilmore & Bell PC - the developer would cover the bill, she said.

Shawnee, Kan.-based Straub Construction Co. Inc. is tabbed as general contractor, but there will be local involvement, according to Nichols. The design team from St. Louis-based Rosemann and Associates will be led by Drury University graduate Jarret Cooper, and Zac Nichols, a graduate of Missouri State University, is Dalmark's project manager. Nichols said Dalmark also would utilize Springfield-area engineers and subcontractors with the project.  

Dalmark is the fourth developer to lay out redevelopment plans for the former Heer's department store since Warren Davis Properties bought the vacant building for $415,000 in 1995.