“Go big, or go home” was the recommendation of convention consultant Rob Hunden last fall when considering a potential hotel on land next to the Springfield Expo Center.
I wholeheartedly agree there should be a hotel connecting the Expo to the parking garage on the other side of the vacant lot. But a sprawling development that may not get financed, may not be filled and may not be sustainable doesn’t need to be created. Springfield needs to do what it does best – leverage limited resources through collaboration.
The consultant’s suggested 60,000 square feet of retail isn’t needed at the convention complex. The area and its patrons should be better connected to the 46 restaurants, 20 pubs and clubs, 20 art galleries, and 16 movie screens a few blocks down St. Louis Street. A few strategically placed new restaurants and retailers could accomplish that at a fraction of the cost.
Instead of building a new parking garage for University Plaza, the roughly 500 parking spaces that go unused each day in the existing structures owned by the Jordan Valley Community Health Center and Davis Properties should be more effectively utilized.
The same applies for many of the other pending major development projects.
St. Louis developer Kevin McGowan took on our biggest project, the Heer’s building on Park Central Square. The Great Recession foiled that plan and left it in limbo the past two years. A local developer with a proven track record would likely have greater success in securing Springfield tenants and financing. That white elephant will have to be eaten one bite at a time by those who fondly remember meals in the Garden Room.
There are more than 600 student housing beds currently under construction between downtown and Missouri State University. Housing is currently one of downtown’s most bankable investments. The owners of the Woodruff building should work to find an experienced developer to convert the crumbling office icon into loft apartments.
The City Utilities bus transfer station has been the not-in-my-back-yard project of the decade. CU will have to find neighbors willing to collaborate with it to bring transit-oriented development – meaning more than just the station – to an area hungry for the $4 million CU has available to spend on the project.
There aren’t the resources or the political appetite for taking big risks today. However, Springfield continues to be a growing area with a variety of public and private entities planning for measured expansions.
In honor of the 2011 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals’ exhibition game at Hammons Field on April 2, let’s use a baseball analogy. You don’t send your hitters to the plate to swing for the fences when you need to score several runs. The smart play is to string together as many singles and doubles as your team can muster and get the team in a position to drive in the winning run. Whitey Herzog, the late Hall of Fame manager of the Cardinals, proved that a championship team can play small and still win big.
That strategy, fueled by historic tax credits and higher education investments, has worked for center city for the past 15 years and is a much more realistic approach to revitalizing the convention center complex.
Rusty Worley, executive director of Urban Districts Alliance, can be reached at rusty@itsalldowntown.com.[[In-content Ad]]
