“It’s in transition.”
That description of the city’s central business district was often repeated during the first of a series of public meetings held by Downtown Springfield, Inc.
The downtown’s current challenges are well-known: the departure of state office jobs, a devastating fire last June, vacant business fronts and the recent closure of the Wyndham Springfield City Center.
What will it take for the area to recover?
That was the focus of the April 4 meeting held at the downtown YMCA.
“We have a lot of projects that have been ongoing and are due to be completed in 2026, which is great timing with the Route 66 centennial just 10 short months away,” said Scott Dahl, director at Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau. “I'd say downtown is in transition.”
Ward 5 Ald. Lakeisha Purchase, the city council member who represents part of the downtown area, took part in the focus group. She said while the area faces challenges, there are also encouraging developments.
“I have a passion with me – not just representing our downtown – but also having a personal interest in downtown as well and looking to enhance it. … (my ward also) encompasses the medical district, which connects to the downtown and is our largest employer.”
Purchase said that investing “TLC” in the downtown could be an economic driver for the community and noted the state is renovating the armory building in the Capitol Complex.
“We also have a lot of renovations going on with the Capitol, the armory. So, it's potentially bringing more bodies to our downtown,” Purchase said.
Dahl said this is not the time to be a naysayer about the area.
“I am bullish on the downtown,” he said. “And I'm always bullish on tourism and travel. We're coming off three consecutive years of record traveler expenditures in Springfield. … We're looking at another record travel year in 2026 and with the projects wrapping up with the state historic sites, the transportation hub and the state Capitol complex, I think the downtown is poised for a revival.”
Dahl’s optimism is not dampened by the recent closure of the Wyndham City Center following vandalism, which caused flooding in the building.
Just when the 30-story building will reopen has yet to be determined. But local officials don’t anticipate tourism numbers to drop in the interim. Dahl said he is confident no conferences or meetings will be moved out of Springfield even though the hotel has been deemed unsafe for occupancy.
Still, the area continues to have its challenges, contends Linda Reyhan, who owns Springfield Vintage, 215 S. Fifth St. She noted the post-COVID trend of state workers working remotely has been hard on the city’s central business district.
“State workers are not working out of their offices, so downtown takes a big hit. They leave empty buildings all over. So that’s a hit. We've got so many older buildings downtown that we have not been renovating in a timely fashion. They're just past their due date. And now it's too expensive to fix them,” Reyhan said.
“Springfield itself doesn't really support downtown. They're like, ‘Don't go downtown. It's scary.’ So much of that stuff's not really true anymore. There's parking because there's nobody downtown. We don't have that many panhandlers anymore. You know why? There's nobody downtown.”
Reyhan said that downtown has many significant assets and tourist destinations, but most residents don’t think of Springfield as a tourist community.
“The amount of money that we could be bringing in as a town if (only) we were to gussy ourselves up and look prettier … we would have a much happier town,” she said.
Developing areas currently used for surface parking, catering more to walkers and bicyclists and creating more affordable and market-rate housing were among scores of suggestions in a master plan for downtown Springfield and the Mid-Illinois Medical District that was released last October. The 278-page document was the first long-term plan for downtown Springfield and listed a variety of economic development tools and potential partnerships that could help with financing the goals outlined in the plan.
The Chicago-based planning firm Houseal Lavigne presented the Downtown and Medical District Master Plan to the city council on Dec. 3, but unlike redevelopment plans for other Springfield neighborhoods, no formal vote was taken to adopt it.
Carlos Ortega, executive director of Downtown Springfield, Inc., said he is not discouraged by this.
“I'm working very closely with the city on trying to make sure that some of the things that have been brought up in city council – whether that be the hiring of an individual developer strictly for downtown – (or) some other things, (that) we start working towards the goals of that master plan.”
In the plan he presented April 4, Ortega proposed marketing the downtown as four distinct sectors.
He noted each sector has a unique centerpiece: the Capitol, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the Hoogland Center for the Arts and the Kidzeum of Health & Science.
“Each of those four unique pillars brings in a certain type of crowd: individuals coming to visit, coming to explore, coming to learn,” Ortega said. “And around those different areas you have small businesses that encourage growth and development. You have housing, you have parking, and near three of those pillars, you have microbrews.”
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Upcoming public forums
Downtown Springfield Inc. is hosting a series of conversations about how to promote and market individual downtown neighborhoods. Members of the DSI team will present and engage with attendees throughout the two-hour events. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP at www.facebook.com/DowntownSpringfieldInc.
CAP 1908
1100 South Grand Ave. E.
Wednesday, April 23
5-6:30 p.m.
Kidzeum of Health and Science
412 E. Adams St.
Friday, May 10
10 a.m.- 12 p.m.
