The Springfield Project at CAP 1908 Innovation & Coworking Center is planning the creation of an outdoor food court to promote entrepreneurship even as it introduces a summer market series.
The Springfield Project’s goal of developing an outdoor entrepreneurial food court was given a boost after the Springfield City Council on May 19 adopted an ordinance authorizing a contract with the nonprofit from March 1, 2026, through Feb. 28, 2028.
The contract is “to support a comprehensive and cohesive strategic plan for economic development in Springfield and authorize an annual payment in the amount of $50,000, subject to the city council approval of the city’s fiscal year budget.”
Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory made an amendment to give The Springfield Project an additional $75,000 over two years – making a total $125,000 per year.
“It’s more than just about that one project. They were assigned a strategic project. That first $50,000 was to develop a strategic project for Wards 2 and 3,” Gregory said. “I made an amendment to give them an additional $75,000, but the bucket that we took it out of is for very specific purposes from the state of Illinois. It’s from the Local Government Distributive Fund –8% that the state sends down from cannabis – and that funding there has to be used for violence prevention, etc.”
Dominic Watson, executive director of The Springfield Project, said during the City Council meeting that an outdoor entrepreneurial food court is one of the enterprise’s priorities in addressing violence prevention.
CAP 1908, 1100 South Grand Ave. E., offers a co-working space and a wide range of small business and organization programming in Springfield’s Southtown Cultural District. The Southtown neighborhood’s boundaries are Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to 11th Street and South Grand Avenue to Cook Street.
Founded in 1996, The Springfield Project is anchored by the 1908 Innovation & Coworking Center, “a community-driven space that supports business growth, workforce training, youth programming and collaboration,” according to the organization’s website.
In March 2024, the city council awarded the nonprofit a $500,00 allocation from the Far East TIF district to purchase two adjacent properties, the former Madison Furniture building at 1104 South Grand Avenue E., as well as the adjacent former theater, now used as a stained-glass studio, at 1110 South Grand Ave. E.
“We’re exploring some efforts in and around CAP 1908, so, obviously, that’s an opportunity right across the street there that’s worth exploring, and we’ll follow that lead and that guidance that you required of us,” Watson told the City Council May 19.
The Springfield Project is evaluating different sites for the outdoor food court.
A property of interest is a city-owned lot across from The Springfield Project on the southwest corner. A food court on that property could help generate city tax dollars, Gregory said.
“Of course, they want to go with the one across from them. I want them to go with the one across from them,” Gregory said. “They’re going to evaluate sites, do what needs to be done as far as environmental and all of those things and then putting together costs, etc., and then they’ll present something, probably before budget season … to just see where that’s at.”
An outdoor food court would give people a “dedicated space,” Gregory said.
“The goal with that is to create a food court that young entrepreneurs from our community, who hire from our community, will have a home, so they don’t have to cook out of side yards or backyards,” Gregory said. “A lot of people are doing that – cooking and betting on themselves. We want to try to give them a home, similar to what we see with The Railyard (outdoor food court), but, definitely, we’re not going to steal their idea.”
The Springfield Project has also been working on an indoor commercial kitchen. Watson previously told Illinois Times that CAP 1908 planned to open a shared kitchen and culinary incubator in an adjacent building, followed by a performing arts center that would offer early childhood and afterschool programs rooted in the arts.
“We definitely just want a home for all of our entrepreneurs and cooks and vendors and all of those things, so those people at Juneteenth, many of them, hopefully, at some point in time, can have a home, and we’ll incubate them and grow them,” Gregory said. “That’s what Springfield Project does and CAP 1908 does there, and then at that point, they’ll be able to grow.”
The Springfield Project has also introduced “1908 Culture Fest: Summer Market Series,” a four-week cultural marketplace that will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays beginning July 11 at the organization’s South Grand Avenue headquarters.
Week one will focus on African culture, followed by Latino/Hispanic culture for week two, Caribbean culture for week three and Black culture for week four.
Tamara “Tammie” Browning is a freelance writer and reporter from Petersburg, Illinois. She has a weekly newsletter “Mother Road Moves” on Substack that chronicles the people, places, things and happenings on Route 66 – from Illinois to California.