If all goes according to plan, the Baskin-Robbins on MacArthur Boulevard will reopen a year after a vehicular accident that caused extensive damage to the building and forced the business to close.
Melinda “Mindi” Gutmann, who owns both the Baskin-Robbins stores in Springfield, credited “divine intervention,” noting that there were several factors working against reopening in the same location.
On June 17, a minivan crashed into a masonry support for the building at 1700 S. MacArthur Blvd., causing two beams and the roof to collapse. Both Baskin-Robbins and the other tenant, Sterling Tax Service, were forced to close due to the extensive damage.
The building owner had purchased the property a few months prior from Glenn Yanow, the longtime Baskin-Robbins owner. Yanow retired in 2012 and sold the business to Gutmann, who had worked for him for 23 years, but continued to own the real estate until February 2025.
Gutmann said her new landlord didn’t want to rebuild the property after the accident. “I thought I was going to have to go someplace else,” she said.
She said Baskin-Robbins’ corporate office, which has to approve all the location, “was trying to push me out west. But I wanted to stay in the neighborhood; that was very important to me.”
Gutmann noted that she’s been at the MacArthur location for nearly 40 years. In 2023, she purchased the Baskin-Robbins store at 106 Chatham Road, although she said Springfield residents don’t seem as familiar with that one.
“It’s taken a couple of years for people to know that location is back open,” she said. “When the accident happened, people didn’t even realize we had the other location.”
Gutmann said that while she’s seen an uptick in business at the remaining Baskin-Robbins store, it “by no means has absorbed the sales that we’ve lost at MacArthur.”
She was determined to reopen a second store, but initially thought she would have to relocate. Gutmann said she found a nearby space available that “was not the best, but the closest I could get. I was getting ready to sign a (letter of intent) and then I got a call from someone saying he had bought the property and was going to rebuild it, would I be interested in coming back?”
Meanwhile, Sterling Tax Service had relocated to 450 S. Durkin Dr. and was not interested in moving back to the MacArthur building, so Gutmann said she will be able to absorb that space.
“When I reopen, I’ll have the whole building,” she said.
Gutmann said a firm opening date is hard to predict due to construction schedules and inspections, but she’s hoping to be open by the end of June at the latest.
“Earlier than that would be great, but I don’t want to set our sights too early and be disappointed; I’d rather by happy when we get to open earlier,” Gutmann said.
“There’s a lot of work ahead, but I feel pretty luck to be able to go back to the neighborhood,” she said. “I don’t have any doubt that it will be as successful as it was, and hopefully even more successful.”
GO TRUMP!