Steven Spearie
The State Journal-Register
Over the objections of the Downtown Springfield Heritage Foundation and Landmarks Illinois, the Springfield City Council Tuesday approved an ordinance that will give Horace Mann tax increment financing funds to demolish two buildings in the 600 block of East Washington Street.
Ward 6 Ald. Kristin DiCenso and Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin voted against the redevelopment agreement.
Donald Carley, executive vice president and general counsel at Horace Mann, and Tony Schuering of Brown, Hay & Stephens, serving as outside counsel for the insurance company headquartered in Springfield, said there was a large hole in the roof of one of the buildings and that both buildings were wracked with black mold, asbestos tiles and standing water that has pooled for years.
The idea, Carley told the committee of the whole last week, was to tear down the two structures and create a green space with 28 parking spaces.
Horace Mann renovated the historic three-story Witmer-Schuck building that dates back to the 1860s at the southwest corner of Washington and Seventh streets. That building has commercial/retail space on the first floor. The company is remodeling the second and third floors for corporate residences.
The redevelopment’s approval will give Horace Mann $600,000 in funds from the Central Area TIF.
DiCenso pulled the ordinance from the consent agenda and moved it to the debate floor. DiCenso said while she wasn’t against the project, she had “concerns” about it. DiCenso said when she met with Horace Mann officials, they had not met with the Historic Preservation Agency.
In a letter to Mayor Jim Langfelder and city council members, Quinn Adamowski, regional advocacy manager for Landmarks Illinois, argued the building that abuts the Office of the Illinois Treasurer was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as “a contributing structure” to the Central Springfield Historic District.
Authorizing TIF funds for its demolition would violate state law, Adamowski added.
Dave Leonatti, the Heritage Foundation’s vice president and an architect with Melotte-Morse-Leonatti Parker, Ltd., said the $600,000 in TIF money Horace Mann was seeking to cover demolition costs could be “better spent in stabilizing the existing structures, and allow (the foundation) and other entities to work together to find new owners that can develop an adaptive reuse plan that doesn’t level one-third of the block.”
Representatives from the two groups did not speak at Tuesday’s meeting.
McMenamin, who owns property downtown, said he had to turn around after getting five feet into one of the buildings “because you literally gagged (because of the mold). I’ve been told the other one is worse.”
Ald. Lakeisha Purchase, whose Ward 5 represents a good portion of downtown, said it was “alarming to know we had a building sitting there that long with a big hole in the roof. That changed my mind to be supportive of this redevelopment project.”
Schuering contended that both buildings sit east of the historic district and that both were “irretrievably lost by years upon years upon years of deferred maintenance and dilapidation.”
In the meeting, McMenamin asked Horace Mann to consider a subrogation clause in the event the city is sued, most likely over the use of TIF funds. Under such an arrangement, Horace Mann would have to cover the costs of any legal fees the city might incur in a lawsuit.
Schuering said subrogation clauses “have never been a part of the city’s standard redevelopment agreement” and it wasn’t fair to ask Horace Mann to take that on.
McMenamin said later he joined DiCenso in voting “no” on the redevelopment because Horace Mann wouldn’t commit to one.
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Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 