A Springfield company is asking the city for $2.6 million in TIF revenue to help renovate the long-vacant former AT&T building downtown so the 128,000-square-foot structure can be rented as office space to house more than 300 government employees.
Christopher Stone, part-owner and managing member of Springfield Partners IV LLC, the company making the TIF request, wouldn’t say which level of government would potentially rent the connected three- and four-story brick buildings at 529 S. Seventh St.
Stone’s associated companies, Springfield Partners I and Springfield Partners 3, rent office space to the Illinois Department of Public Health at 525-535 W. Jefferson St., and the Illinois Department of Human Services at Iles Park Place along South Sixth Street, respectively.
He said information about the possible governmental tenant for 529 S. Seventh St. could become public in May.
The $10.9 million renovation project would lead to an influx of white-collar workers and “substantially help downtown,” he said. Downtown Springfield has seen state government office sites dwindle over the past 20 years, creating economic hardships for local restaurants, bars and retail businesses.
The Springfield Economic and Community Development Commission voted unanimously in March to support Springfield Partners’ proposal. The 15-member citizen panel is appointed by the mayor and makes non-binding recommendations to the council.
Stone said he isn’t aware of any opposition to the project. The renovations wouldn’t require zoning approval to proceed, but it would need the requested TIF funding, which would cover almost one-quarter of the total cost, he said.
Springfield Partners’ request for $2.6 million from the city’s Central Area tax-increment financing district in downtown Springfield is sponsored by Mayor Misty Buscher and is listed on first reading for the April 15 council meeting. Proposals generally aren’t discussed, and can’t be voted on, on first reading.
The council is expected to discuss plans for the former AT&T building at its April 29 committee-of-the-whole meeting. The soonest plans could be approved would be at the May 6 council meeting.
The buildings at 529 S. Seventh St. were constructed in the 1960s. They originally were used as a regional call center and administrative facility for Illinois Bell, which later became a part of Ameritech, SBC Communications and then AT&T. As many as 600 people worked at the site, Stone said.
Springfield Partners IV bought the property, on the northwest corner of South Seventh Street and East Edwards Street, from AT&T for $1.4 million in mid-2022, according to Sangamon County property records.
The structures have been vacant for more than 10 years, according to Julia Griffin, operations coordinator in the city’s Office of Planning and Economic Development.
Stone said the site is structurally sound. “It needs a lot of aesthetic updating,” he said.
Plans include installing new carpeting, replacing all the windows, updating the three elevators and a freight elevator and redoing the exterior, Stone said.
He said Springfield Partners already has installed a sprinkler system and plans to repave a 137-space parking lot immediately west of the building that the company bought from a private owner. A security fence will be installed around the parking lot, Stone said.
If the TIF funding is approved, renovations could begin in July and be completed by the first or second quarter of 2026, he said.
The Central Area TIF district was created in 1981. Property taxes collected in excess of the amount collected inside the district after 1981 have been put into a fund that the city can spend on qualified expenses for infrastructure improvements within the district.
The life of the Central Area TIF has been extended twice, for 12 years apiece, by the Illinois General Assembly. The downtown TIF district is scheduled to expire in December 2028, and city officials said they have no plans to seek another extension.
An online map of the Central Area TIF is available at https://bit.ly/DowntownTIF.
Expiration of the TIF would mean no new projects could be funded after December 2028, but the city would continue to collect tax revenue and fund previously approved projects through the city fiscal year that ends in February 2030, Griffin said.
About $3 million is available for new projects in the current fiscal year, which ends in February 2026, Griffin said. Springfield Partners proposes to receive the $2.6 million in TIF money in five equal installments of $529,352 during fiscal years 2026 through 2030.
The project would be in Ward 2, represented by Ald. Shawn Gregory. The site is about two blocks south of the Ward 2 border with Ward 5, which is represented by Ald. Lakeisha Purchase.
Purchase was a contracted employee of Capstone Consulting, a lobbying firm owned by Stone, from July 2023 to June 2024. The firm provides lobbying services to clients on state cannabis policy and state appropriations issues.
