Officials break ground for $20M College Station

Springfield City Councilman Ralph Manley called it the greatest thing to ever happen to the city.

Blunt and Manley were among about 100 community leaders and Missouri legislators who attended a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday afternoon for the anticipated two-acre College Station development, bound by Campbell and Market avenues and College and McDaniel streets. It’s one of the largest public-private redevelopment projects in Springfield’s history.

The retail and entertainment project was first announced more than two years ago and had been slated for completion by fall of this year. The new timeline calls for an early 2008 opening.

At Thursday’s event, speakers included Springfield Mayor Tom Carlson; Greg Steinhoff, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development; John Askew, regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Tim Rosenbury, of Butler, Rosenbury & Partners – the project’s designer; Blunt; and Rusty Worley, executive director of Urban Districts Alliance.

Steinhoff was on hand to announce the state’s contribution to College Station: $7.167 million through MODESA Lite, which allows sharing of additional state sales tax revenue created by downtown redevelopment. That funding could grow up to $11 million depending on how many jobs are created as a result of the project.

“We believe this will stimulate multiple times private investment and will actually become a stimulus for many, many projects to come,” Steinhoff said.

Project developer Scott Tillman, with Tillman Redevelopment LLC, has an investment of about $12 million into the project. Additional funding will come from $3 million from the city’s Section 108 Loan Guarantee program, $8.8 million worth of council-approved bonds and an EPA brownfield grant.

Construction of the $20 million development, which also includes an $8.69 million, 393-space parking garage, is set to begin immediately.

College Station will include 77,000 square feet for retail and restaurants and 46,000 square feet for a 14-screen, first-run Hollywood Theaters cinema.