Jamie Munks
The State Journal-Register
A roughly $10 million proposed housing project slated for downtown Springfield hangs in the balance, and Tuesday’s city council meeting could determine whether the developer continues with or abandons the proposal.
Iowa-based Bluffstone Inc., which specializes in student-geared housing, has proposed a five-story, 70-unit development for the corner of Fourth and Madison streets, which company representatives have said they would market to University of Illinois Springfield students who are interning downtown, though it wouldn’t be affiliated with UIS.
The city council has pushed off action on both a zoning change and a request for $700,000 in tax increment financing funds from the city, often with little to no discussion.
Tim Baldwin, Bluffstone’s principal, expressed frustration Thursday with the city council delaying action on the project’s zoning and TIF funding requests, and he took issue with what he sees as city leaders asking Bluffstone to go above and beyond the city’s TIF requirements.
“Depending on what the outcome is, we’ll determine what our next steps are,” Baldwin said Thursday. “One of the options on that list is moving on from Springfield. If Springfield is not ready for us, there are plenty of other opportunities.”
The use of local labor is apparently a sticking point, with city leaders contending that if they funnel taxpayer money to a project, they want to see the local workforce reap some of the benefits of that investment. Bluffstone representatives, meanwhile, think it’s preliminary to commit to a local general contractor.
“We don’t know Bluffstone that well. I think the concern is making sure you use local workforce,” Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder said Thursday. “We want to make sure tax dollars recycle within Springfield.”
Local labor
Baldwin earlier Thursday wrote an email — obtained by The State Journal Register — to Langfelder and aldermen addressing the local labor concerns. Baldwin wrote that Bluffstone gave Brad Schaive, business manager of the Laborers’ union Local 477, “a memorandum of understanding that should Bluffstone build in downtown Springfield using TIF funds, we would be happy to work with him on the project.”
***
Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin emphasized that Bluffstone has committed to paying the prevailing wage. “That should be enough, in my mind,” McMenamin said.
The $700,000 TIF request is about 7 percent of the total expected project cost, and Baldwin estimated that close to $2 million of the cost would be eligible for TIF funding.
In addition to the hang-up on local labor, city leaders have said they haven’t gotten enough information from Bluffstone about the plans and that they have concerns about the building design. Baldwin said Bluffstone keeps meeting the city’s requests for information, and they keep saying that “they don’t have enough.”
The council on Tuesday quickly tabled the redevelopment agreement, which includes the TIF request. That came as a surprise, McMenamin said, adding that tabling an ordinance holds it back without discussion. “There seem to be there are secrets out there,” he said.
Decision time
***
Langfelder said that if the city is going to spend $700,000 on a project, officials want to make sure it’s done right. “Everybody is for the housing project, first one downtown in a long time, and we want to make sure it’s successful,” he said.
But the developers are coming up on a time crunch in order to have any hope of completing a project in time for the 2016-17 school year.
***
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 