Local real estate investor Chris Stone has acquired the former PNC Bank building on the Old State Capitol Plaza downtown.
“I think it’s probably the best building on the square,” Stone said. “I’ve been working on projects in downtown Springfield for more than 10 years, and I thought this was an opportunity to take a possibly distressed asset and redo it so it has the proper character for its location right there on the square.”
Stone purchased the building from First Bankers Trust Co. for $1.65 million through the Springfield Partners VII LLC, according to Sangamon County tax records. The deal closed on July 31.
The building is 98% occupied, Stone said Aug. 19. State agencies – the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Illinois Board of Higher Education – rent the largest share of the 161,000-square-foot building. Other tenants include the Sorling Northrup law firm and the Laborers’ International Union of North America.
Improvements that Stone plans to make at the building include updating the HVAC system, upgrading the landscaping and, in the long term, replacing the roof and updating the building’s common areas. He said eventually he would like to develop the drive-thru area into “something that has a retail component.”
The building’s drive-thru previously was used by PNC Bank, which formerly occupied the first floor of the building. PNC closed the downtown location in 2021, combining its operations into its branch at 2007 S. MacArthur Blvd. Prior to PNC’s departure, a bank had anchored the property for decades.
Stone has several other downtown investments. He owns the property at 525-535 W. Jefferson St., which houses the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Iles Park Place building along South Sixth Street, which houses offices for the Illinois Department of Human Services.
Stone also owns the long-vacant former AT&T building at 529 S. Seventh St. He received Springfield City Council approval in May 2025 to receive $2.6 million from the city’s Central Area tax-increment financing district in downtown Springfield. He told city officials he wanted to use the money to renovate the 128,000-square-foot structure so it could be rented as office space for more than 300 government employees.
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Stone said Springfield Partners IV LLC, for which he is a part-owner and managing member, has begun to access the TIF funding for renovations. The $2.6 million will be used over a five-year period, and this is the second year of renovations, he said.
A tenant for the building hasn’t been secured yet, Stone said. He said negotiation on that issue are “still in flux.” He wouldn’t elaborate.
The former AT&T building is actually two connected buildings – one three stories and one four stories. Originally constructed in the 1960s, the buildings were used as a regional call center and administrative facility for Illinois Bell, which later became a part of Ameritech, SBC Communications and then AT&T.
In addition to real estate investing, Stone is an entrepreneur in the cannabis industry. He was the founder of Springfield’s first medical-marijuana dispensary, HCI Alternatives, and also founded Lucy’s Place, Illinois’ first chain of video gaming cafes.