The Town and Country Shopping Center on MacArthur Boulevard may be on the brink of being transformed into an upscale apartment complex and retail area.
The Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission is slated to consider the proposed transformation of the strip mall in the 2300 to 2500 blocks of MacArthur Boulevard on Nov. 20. The request for a conditional permitted use, which would allow the resident component of the project to proceed, will be determined by the commission.
The commission will also make a non-binding recommendation on the requested zoning variances to the Springfield City Council, which will vote on the matter Dec. 17.
According to David Farrell, a member of the MacArthur Boulevard Association, which has been briefed on the proposed development, the plan would:
· Create 40 to 50 apartments in a three-story complex that would be perpendicular to MacArthur Boulevard. The apartments would be a mix of one- and two-bedroom units with rents starting at $1,100 a month.
· Create more green space by leveling storefronts that once housed the Chabad Jewish Center and a nail salon. Lucy’s Place, a video gaming facility, will be allowed to complete its lease before it, too, is razed.
· The former CVS building, which most recently housed Hibachi Grill Supreme Buffet, and a smoke shop just to its north would be leveled.
“The apartments will put people there who can become regular shoppers,” Farrell said. “It also has a nice presence in terms of general security. The more people you have live in an area, work in an area, come in and out at different hours, the more it makes people feel comfortable being around there.
“A building on the corner that was in its day a Town and Country Bank – and it then was a payday loan operation – also would be going down. It would be replaced by some more upscale services or retail operations. It's very appealing,” he said. “That area could serve as a base for some retail operations that would feel very comfortable across the street from Hy-Vee.”
Paul Layton is the owner of Underdog Sports & Fanfare, 2581 S. MacArthur, located in a freestanding building at the far south end of the shopping center. He said he is in the process of purchasing his building from the developer and plans to construct a 1,500 square foot addition, in part because of the planned improvements next door.
“We only have 3,600 square feet in Springfield. So, it's time for us to reinvest in Springfield,” Layton said. “Now that we know how well that extra square footage works in our Peoria (store), we are looking forward to having wider aisles and more selection in Springfield. The investment in the shopping center helps us to get over the hump in whether we should reinvest.”
Ward 6 Ald. Jennifer Notariano said she was pleased to see the blighted area reinvigorated.
“It's unoccupied space for the most part,” she said. “We actually just discussed at a previous MacArthur Boulevard meeting how that complex was being broken into and vandalized and stripped of materials. So (this development) would essentially be turning a problem property into a boon.”
Notariano said using some of the space to create additional housing would be a plus as well.
“We are facing a housing shortage in the city – just like most other communities in America -- right now. And to add 40 units of housing on MacArthur Boulevard would be a step in the right direction,” she said.
Notariano said the developer has not revealed a price tag for the project.
In 2022, an auction of the 260,000-square-foot shopping center was done on behalf of bond holders who owned the center’s assets. Larkspur Properties, an investment firm in Miami that specializes in distressed residential and commercial projects, was the top bidder to acquire the shopping center. It bought the property for $5.77 million.
Larkspur president David Bernstein declined to discuss the redevelopment plans when contacted Nov. 18 by Illinois Times.
The retail area, built in 1961, was Springfield’s first outlying shopping center. At the time of the sale, it was 65% vacant.
The biggest empty space at Town and Country, covering 65,000 square feet, had been occupied by Burlington Coat Factory, which relocated in 2018 to the southeast corner of Veterans Parkway and Wabash Avenue. Larkspur plans to convert that vacant space into climate-controlled units for indoor storage.
Larkspur has several Midwestern properties, including a former Walmart in Belleville that it converted into an indoor storage facility, former Springfield Ald. Joe McMenamin said. He previously represented the ward where Town and Country is located and met with Bernstein shortly after the property changed hands two years ago.
“That very successful project in Belleville impressed everyone with the MacArthur Boulevard Association,” he said. “It was kind of a similar situation. It was a big box store that had become vacant. He turned it around in Belleville, and he can do the same here in Springfield.”
Existing tenants include the Illinois State Board of Elections, Dollar Tree, Citi Trends, Chuck E. Cheese, Lucy’s Place and Underdog Sports & Fanfare.
The property previously was owned by an investor group that included Springfield developer Corky Joyner and former city attorney Jim Zerkle. Ownership later transferred from Joyner and Zerkle's limited liability company to JPMorgan Chase.
JP Morgan filed a foreclosure claim in 2019 when Joyner and Zerkle's group failed to make required monthly payments on a loan.
This story has been updated to include additional information about plans for Underdog Sports & Fanfare.
