Henderson project to bring restaurant, residential units to city’s far north

Construction on The Henderson, a new mixed-use housing and commercial development approved by Springfield City Council in February for 3305 N. Glenstone Ave., is slated to begin in the fall.

The project is an example of a success story in communication between the city and the development team, according to Brent Brown, managing partner of Greenway Development Group LLC.

Brown said he plans to have a one-year build-out. Snyder Construction Group LLC has been selected as general contractor with Buf Studios LLC as architect and Olsson Inc. providing some of the engineering work.

He declined to disclose the investment for the property or the estimated cost of the project.

The approved design is an L-shaped building with a first-floor commercial component fronting Glenstone Avenue. Brown said he would like to see a local restaurant in the space, similar to Travellers House Coffee LLC in his company’s Boomer Town development or Niji Sushi Bar & Grill LLC, part of his Galloway Creek Development.

Brown said the project straddled a period of transition between the old and the revised land development codes in the city, adding to the complexity of the project, but he said the city was very cooperative in helping to adapt plans.

“It turned out to be something very positive,” he said. “I thought that was worth mentioning, since every other week you hear something negative between a developer and the city or a developer and the neighborhood.”

Brown said he leaned into the opportunity to build a better development in the project that features 77 residential units and first-floor commercial space. As recently as 10 years ago, he said, he might have vented his frustration that the city was making things hard on him.

“We didn’t do that,” he said. “The city participated and said, ‘What about this?’ and ‘What about that?’ We said, ‘That’s cool. Let’s go back and see what we can come up with.’”

Justin Crighton, city assistant director of planning and development, also found the process to be a fruitful one, noting that the developers approached the city with a collaborative mindset.

“I think the project turned out better as a result,” he said.

Neighborhood communication
Brown also praised the collaborative spirit of neighborhood residents, noting that neighbors to the north and west of the development showed up at the Jan. 22 neighborhood meeting, and they stayed the entire three hours, seated around a large table, to talk about the plans.

A sign-in sheet from the event shows five residents attended, but Brown said about a dozen people showed up.

“Some of those folks had lived in their homes for many, many years,” he said.

Brown said neighbors were concerned about a drainage culvert at the west boundary of the development property, separating it from the residential neighborhood, and neighbors complained that the culvert was overgrown and ugly.

“The conversation led to a discussion about what they would like to see, one of which is clearing that out over there and providing some beautification,” he said. “We talked about lighting, bulk plane – that’s the building height – and how the buffer yard and then the parking lot would separate them from the building.”

For the benefit of both the neighborhood and the development, Brown said he plans to clean up the culvert.

Brown said sometimes developers approach neighborhood meetings with the idea that the less said, the better.

“I think that’s a recipe for potential issues down the road,” he said. “I’d rather just get it all out there.”

While Greenway Development Group couldn’t promise to provide everything the neighborhood wanted, residents left the meeting with an understanding of what would happen, Brown said.

“We wanted to make sure they understood what we were going to do, what we felt like we could do,” he said. “Ultimately, none of them came out and spoke against the development at the Planning & Zoning or council hearing.”

Collaboration with city
Ricky Haase, vice president of Olsson Inc., represented the project at the March 9 City Council meeting and pointed out some of the complexity of the project during the transitional period for the code, which included new landscaping requirements that had to be worked through.

Haase said three parcels had to be combined, with one of them rezoned and with some easements vacated. The 77 apartments include 69 one-bedroom and eight two-bedroom units.

Haase said the project includes about 1,000 square feet of office space and about 2,000 square feet for a restaurant.

“That was kind of a way to create a bit of a community space rather than just an apartment project here,” Haase told council.

He added that staff was helpful.

“We worked really closely with staff to get the building up toward the front of the lot, and there was a lot of back-and-forth,” Haase said. “This is probably the fifth or sixth site plan, so we feel like we got it right.”

Brown said he is sharing the success story to show that collaboration is possible when a developer is willing to listen.

“Some of that’s lessons learned from what we’ve been doing over the last several years,” he said. “I’m quite certain I’ve felt that sense of entitlement as a developer, but I’ve learned that’s just not the right approach. We learn from those experiences.”

He added that his background as a local person who was formerly in the grocery business was helpful in the neighborhood meeting.

“These folks had lived in some cases 60 years in their house, and it was fascinating to hear their stories,” he said. “I was able to tell my story, and they’d all shopped at our stores. I’m just a guy from Springfield, like them, and that broke down some of the walls.”