The auction for the Myers Building in downtown Springfield has been postponed, but the goal is still to find a new owner for the building after three generations of family ownership.
"We have had a lot of interest in the property, but due to the holidays and some weather-related issues, we decided to reschedule it and allow more time for people to come visit the property," said Richard Myers, who chairs the executive committee for the family trust that oversees the property.
The commercial real estate firm Marcus & Millichap will be handling the auction, which was originally scheduled to begin in early December.
Michael Myers, a retired Springfield attorney who is one of the 15 family members who have partial ownership of the building, told SBJ in November, “This is a 98-year-old building in the third generation of the family. When you go that long, a lot of the (family) members don’t live in Springfield anymore. The connection to Springfield gets more and more tenuous as the years go on. This is not something that’s uncommon when you have a business that goes for three generations.”
A little more than half of the 10-story, 100,000-square-foot building at the southwest corner of Fifth and Washington streets is vacant, according to the listing on Loopnet advertising various office suites with up to 54,198 square feet available.
The Illinois Treasurer’s Office moved out in 2019 after Chase Bank downsized its downtown location and donated its building at 1 E. Old State Capitol Plaza, the former Springfield Marine Bank, to the state.
Remaining tenants include a law firm, along with several nonprofits and small businesses, including Myers Commercial Real Estate, a commercial real estate firm operated by Steve Myers, one of the family members.
“It is a viable building, but like any building, we’d like to get more tenants,” said Michael Myers. “But we do have more adjacent parking than just about any other building downtown – there is a parking lot across the street, and right behind the building.”
In 2022, a Kansas-based housing developer abandoned plans to purchase the property and convert the building to residential use. Prime Co. wanted to create 114 apartments with rents at below-market rates and finance the deal through the Illinois Housing Development Authority, but then-mayor Jim Langfelder declined to support the project, saying he wanted to see at least 80% of the units earmarked for market rent.
“That was an unfortunate result,” Michael Myers said of the failed deal. “All we needed was a letter (of support), and it would have provided over 100 apartments downtown. It wouldn’t have cost the city a dime, but it wasn’t in the cards.”
Brothers Albert, Louis and Julius Myers built a five-story building at Fifth and Washington streets in 1905, replacing their original store on the north side of the square which only sold men's and boy's clothes. The new, larger location allowed for expanded inventory, but in 1924 it burned to the ground. A 10-story building was constructed at the same site and opened a year later. The store occupied three floors plus the basement, while the upper stories were office space. The downtown Myers Brothers store closed in 1989.
