Neighbors, Valiant Group meet to explore possible plan for Sunshine and National

A meeting between the University Heights Neighborhood Association and representatives of The Valiant Group development company Jan. 13 explored some new possibilities for the contested northwest corner of Sunshine Street and National Avenue.

Valiant Group owner Josh Manning is exploring the possibility of buying parcels currently owned by development company BK&M LLC. The parcels are zoned single-family residential, despite multiple attempts by BK&M to effect a change in their zoning designation, and they cover 2.6 acres of ground.

Manning and Valiant Group’s architect, Nick Schurk, held the initial meeting with University Heights residents and its neighborhood association leadership in an attempt to open dialogue about what could be done on the corner in the event of a Valiant Group purchase.

Maggie Castrey, UHNA president, said in a phone call today that the meeting went well.

“This was a first meeting – a meet-and-greet – and they seemed like very nice men,” she said. “They seemed candid and open.”

Castrey said the two wanted to know what neighbors thought and wanted for the corner.

“The neighbors told them,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of practice by now.”

Manning, too, thought the meeting was positive.

“We haven’t made any financial commitments, but we are motivated, and we feel good about last night’s meeting,” he said by phone today. “The neighbors were very fair, open and transparent. It wasn’t ugly, and there was a very good back-and-forth conversation.”

Manning told Springfield Business Journal in a Jan. 9 interview that he is not interested in a hotel for the corner, and he is also not interested in mixed-use commercial development, favoring instead the kinds of residential development he has done elsewhere in the city. Ideas he outlined to SBJ included town homes or a multifamily development.

Today, he said he feels eager to put something together that would show neighbors what might be possible on the corner and see if there is common ground.

“After last night’s meeting, I feel comfortable moving forward and looking further at designs that the neighbors could look at,” he said.

He said he would also continue to negotiate with the current ownership. BK&M’s principal is Ralph Duda.

Discussion

At the meeting, neighbors outlined some dealbreakers, including entry or exit of traffic on University Street or a massing of buildings that would overshadow homes sharing a property line.

Castrey said neighbors were concerned that homes that had not yet been demolished by BK&M would be demolished, and she said Manning confirmed that if development by Valiant Group were to move forward, they would.

Castrey said there is not consensus among neighbors about what the next steps should be.

“We have a lot of opinions in the neighborhood, and they do not all match,” she said. “We’ve always had a lot of questions and concerns, and all of those still stand.”

But Castrey said the meeting gave a good sense of who the Valiant Group representatives area and how they want to present themselves.

Castrey said the neighborhood association is standing in solidarity with its resident families that are party to a lawsuit seeking to maintain the corner’s zoning as single-family residential. That lawsuit is in the appeal phase, with neighbors having lost their initial suit in a June 2024 ruling by Greene County Circuit Court Judge Derek Ankrom.

The appeal was to have had oral arguments on Jan. 27, but the court docket shows that date has been stricken by court order due to schedule conflicts. The docket does not yet show a date for a rescheduled hearing.

Castrey said some of the neighbors made it clear that they did not want multifamily development, which she said leaves open the possibility of townhomes.

Castrey said an issue for further development is the investment made by BK&M and Duda.

“The issue is Mr. Duda paid too much and refuses to lose a penny,” Castrey said. “He wants to be made whole – he has told us that he had a lot of money in it, and he has to get it all back. That makes a very high starting price for anybody who wants to do something there.”

Duda did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Manning said he would not make a financial commitment until after the lawsuit appeal is settled.

“If the decision is overturned, then single family is unfortunately not something that would work for us on that development, so we would have to pass at that time,” he said.

He said neighbors pressed him for a number of units he would need to make the project viable, and he said at a minimum, it would probably have to be 60 units.

“I’d like to try to do a town home development – kind of an extension of the neighborhood,” he said. “Our goal would be to make it feel like it’s University Heights but in a multiunit town home. It wouldn’t be anything crazy; it would fit the corner well and meet the aesthetics of the neighborhood.”

He added that this is a gut feeling – no designs have been drawn up.

“We have other projects we’ve worked on with this similar kind of feel on less acreage with more units, so I know it can be done, but we won’t know for sure until we get into it,” he said.

Manning said his message to the neighborhood was that he wants the project to be something they like.

“I want it to be something they’re excited about,” he said.

City involvement

Manning told SBJ in previous reporting that a Springfield City Council member made the connection between BK&M and Valiant Group.

Reached for comment, Mayor Jeff Schrag said he was not the person who made the connection, and he added he knows only what he has read in the media. His reaction to the possibility of a deal was guarded optimism.

“Valiant has a good reputation, and it’s an important corner,” Schrag said. “I’m excited to see something good happen there, if it happens.”

Castrey said the issue has been active for about 45 months, with difficult relations between BK&M and the neighborhood.

“I think that City Council wants the problem to go away – everyone wants it to go away,” she said. “Clearly, by telling Mr. Manning to talk to us, they want us to compromise and abandon our desire to have our neighborhood continue to be single-family residential. I have not run into anybody that’s happy about that.”

She added that she can’t see into the future, and she cannot predict how the appeal will pan out.

“I do not know how Valiant’s proposal would look and how it would hit the neighbors,” she said. “There’s a whole big mass of unknowns still, and that’s a cloud hanging over us.”