Showtime: Construction begins on downtown's College Station

“This project has been a long time coming – blood, sweat and tears for everyone,” said Rusty Worley, president of the Urban Districts Alliance, from under a tent stocked with ice-cold water and Popsicles.

Worley recognized developer Scott Tillman of Tillman Redevelopment LLC for guiding the revitalization project approved by City Council nearly three years ago. Tillman was among three developers who submitted proposals in 2003 for an infill project on two city-owned lots just west of Park Central Square.

“We had several great projects that came forward … but it was Scott Tillman who really put the vision together,” Worley said, noting that Tillman conceived a movie theater that would complement rather than compete with downtown shops and restaurants.

Blockbuster development

Hollywood Theaters is College Station’s marquee tenant. The Oregon-based movie chain – the country’s eighth-largest – will occupy 48,000 square feet in the 135,000-square-foot complex being built on a city block bordered by Olive and College streets and Campbell and Market avenues. Hollywood also operates stadium-seating theaters in Columbia, Joplin and St. Joseph.

Scott Hall, senior vice president of real estate and development for Hollywood Theaters, said the state-of-the-art cinema would feature high-back, reclining seats and digital surround sound. Fourteen theaters, each of which will seat between 125 and 300 patrons, will start tearing tickets next summer, Hall said. About 500,000 people are expected to visit the theater complex annually, he said.

Springfield Mayor Tom Carlson hailed College Station as a critical piece of a long-term downtown revitalization plan that encompasses Jordan Valley Park, Park Central Square and the West Meadows.

“It’s not always been an easy road,” Carlson said. “A lot of people didn’t understand the importance of infill development.”

Parking deck delays

College Station was originally slated to open in fall 2006, but delays associated with new parking decks to the south and east of the theater site pushed back the opening date. Even with the project running almost two years behind schedule, Hollywood’s Hall said his company’s commitment to Tillman and Springfield never wavered.

“We’ve always felt this was a worthwhile project,” he said.

In early 2006, the city was forced to redesign the 393-space parking garage south of the theater complex after construction bids came in about $2 million over budget. In November, City Council formally accepted Springfield-based DeWitt & Associates’ $8.69 million bid for the deck, which will have 35,000 square feet of retail space on its ground floor. Tillman owns the space, which will be divvied up and leased to retail and restaurant tenants.

DeWitt & Associates is also the general contractor for the theater complex, which was designed by Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc.

Of the four or five construction contractors who bid on the project, DeWitt & Associates submitted the low bid, said Tillman, who declined to disclose the contract amount.

“Obviously, it was good enough to get it built,” he said after the ceremony.

Springfield Business Journal filed an open-records request with the city for written or electric correspondence between Tillman and city employees regarding construction bids and the DeWitt & Associates contract. City Clerk Brenda Cirtin said no such records exist.

Public-private deal

From its inception, College Station has been billed as a public-private venture. The city sold the property for the theater complex to Tillman for $445,000 – money the city then invested in the parking deck design and necessary infrastructure upgrades. The city later sold the deck’s first-floor space to Tillman for $225,512.

City Council also approved two special taxing districts for the theater complex, each of which will levy 1 cent on all sales at College Station. Tax revenue will then be applied toward the bond debt for the parking deck, said Mary Lilly Smith, the city’s economic development director.

College Station also received full property tax abatement for 25 years, but Smith said Tillman has agreed to make a “parking deck participation payment” that will amount to about $250,000 annually.

Tillman said he’s still negotiating with unnamed restaurants and retailers interested in leasing 42,000 square feet of commercial space in the theater complex. Negotiations have dealt primarily with the size and shape of space sought by prospective tenants, he said, noting that the interior layout has built-in flexibility.

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