O'Brien Memorial Fund to build apartments for disabled

A new 20-unit apartment house will break ground at Woodland and Nettleton near Pebble Creek Apartments on South Fort in the next 30 to 45 days, but it is not a typical multifamily development. It is a development with a mission.

The O'Brien Apartments, named in honor of Springfieldian Tim O'Brien, will be a fully accessible structure designed specifically for people with disabilities who are living on limited incomes. The approximately $1.6 million project "will be an asset for the city and southwest Missouri," said Ron Looney, chairman of the O'Brien Memorial Fund and owner of University Properties & Management Inc.

Looney said the seeds for the project were planted 12 years ago. It started when O'Brien's friends Chuck McCann, Mark Nelson and Dan Huff began holding The Tim O'Brien Memorial Golf Tournament. It started the year after O'Brien died in 1987 of a brain injury due to complications he suffered during a medical procedure after a car accident.

The tournament was first held at Hidden Valley Golf Links, Looney said. Payne Stewart, a friend and client of O'Brien's at Merrill Lynch, became involved with the tournament.

"They ran the golf tournament for three or four years and it started making money they had more money coming in from donations and contributions than they had going out, and a fund built up," Looney said.

Looney took over the planning of the tournament in 1994 after moving back to Springfield from the East Coast and began holding it at Millwood Golf & Racquet Club.

What began with a few of O'Brien's friends playing golf at Hidden Valley and talking about old times soon evolved into a 150-player, corporately sponsored golf tournament.

" ... Over a period of four or five years, the tournament raised close to $50,000 and the Tim O'Brien Memorial Fund was created," Looney said.

He said the fund became a permanent endowment managed by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks that pays for children with brain injuries to go to summer camp.

The tournament's profits continued to grow after the endowment was established, so its organizers discussed building housing for those who have suffered brain trauma.

"In about '94 or '95, we started setting aside a second set of funds so we could do something different. In 1997, McCann, Nelson and I began talking to an organization called Accessible Space Inc. in Minnesota," Looney said.

Accessible Space Inc. is one of only a few nonprofit organizations in the United States that assists projects such as the O'Brien Apartments obtain grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Accessible Space Inc. was responsible for writing a grant that resulted in $1.4 million in HUD Section 811 funding being granted in 1999 to build the facility.

Looney said Accessible Space is responsible for the planning, operation and management of the O'Brien Apartments.

Dock Brothers Construction Company is the general contractor and Butler Rosenbury Inc. as the architect for the project. Realtor Bruce Murray was the agent who found the land for the development, which was purchased from Lee McLean and Jerry Jones, Looney said.

Tenants must qualify to live at the O'Brien Apartments based on their income level. Each tenant will pay 30 percent of his or her monthly income as rent. The remaining portion of the rent will be subsidized, Accessible Space President Stephen Vander Schaaf said.

Accessible Space, which was started by Vander Schaaf in 1975, manages facilities such as the O'Brien Apartments in 22 states. He said the facility is designed specifically for disabled people in that it has wide hallways, wheelchair-level appliances and doors as well as fully accessible showers and bathtubs. It also features indoor and outdoor recreational areas.

O'Brien's mother, Bea O'Brien, said she and her family are deeply touched at the efforts her son's friends have made to celebrate his memory.

"This project is really the result of a great and enduring bond between my son Tim and a group of his friends ... my other children and I are in complete awe and admiration at what these young people have been able to accomplish with a lot of hard work," Bea O'Brien said. "I'm sure my Tim would be amazed and humbled that they would want to do this in his honor. It will serve a great need, and I wish them every success."

(Some information for this story was provided by Inside Business Editor Clarissa A. French.)