City of Homes Focuses on … Building More Homes

Community Spotlight

 

Joesiah Gonzalez calls it a “game changer.”

He was referring to the Gemini Townhomes project in Springfield’s South End, an initiative that will create 40 single-family homes, specifically for first-time homebuyers, on the site of a long-dormant parcel that was once home to the Gemini clothing manufacturing facility, which was destroyed by fire in 2003.

“This project will expand homeownership in the South End by more than 150%,” said Gonzalez, chief Philanthropy and Communications officer for Home City Development Inc., a nonprofit focused on housing, noting that this is the agency’s first foray into homeownership initiatives.

“This will greatly improve that Central Street corridor,” he went on. “For the families, it’s a great opportunity to build equity and generational wealth. And, most importantly, it will bring vested families that want to be near the downtown district; that’s why this is a game changer.”

The $20 million Gemini project is one of many housing initiatives in various stages of development in Springfield, and just one of many intriguing storylines in the City of Homes.

“Springfield was once the place that was incredibly affordable. Now, it’s not as affordable; if you compare our home values today to our suburban counterparts and smaller urban counterparts, like Chicopee and Holyoke, we’re right on par with a lot of these places.”

Others include the upcoming sixth anniversary of the opening of MGM Springfield and the lingering questions about whether the facility is being sold and what they will mean for the city and the region, the opening (probably early next year) of the new parking garage downtown, the state’s ongoing but slow-moving search for a site for a new courthouse, the next stages in the much-anticipated development of the former Eastfield Mall, Chicago-based McCaffery Interests’ redevelopment of the Clocktower Building and Colonial Block downtown, and the planned $31 million expansion of Performance Food Group in the Smith & Wesson Industrial Park, an initiative that will bring 350 new jobs to the city, just to name a few.

Quickly updating some of these initiatives, Tim Sheehan, the city’s chief Economic Development officer, said the McCaffery project, facing challenges such as rising construction costs and interest rates, may benefit from creating a mix of market-rate and workforce housing, the latter of which would enable the project to access state support. Meanwhile, the state has identified five potential sites for a new courthouse, all in the downtown area, but hasn’t said what they are. The likely plan is to build new and not rehabilitate the existing courthouse, giving the city two intriguing development opportunites.

As for the Eastfield Mall, city officials will soon be considering a TIF (tax increment financing) agreement needed to proceed with the construction phase of a mixed-use development now that demolition of the massive parcel has been completed. And the parking garage should bring much-needed relief after what will be more than two and a half years of being without such a facility.

As for other housing issues, while there are several projects in the pipeline, there is still a housing crisis due to a lack of inventory, said City Council President Michael Fenton, adding that there is another potential crisis emerging — one of affordability.

Indeed, Springfield’s home prices have risen at one of the sharpest rates in not only the region, but the state, a development that brings benefits for existing homebuyers, but also hurdles to those looking to buy into the community nicknamed the City of Homes.

“Springfield was once the place that was incredibly affordable,” Fenton said. “Now, it’s not as affordable; if you compare our home values today to our suburban counterparts and smaller urban counterparts, like Chicopee and Holyoke, we’re right on par with a lot of these places.”

For this, the latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest turns its lens on the region’s largest community and its many converging storylines.

 

Living Proof

For roughly four decades now, Evan Plotkin has been working in downtown Springfield — and working to bring about the vibrancy he remembered when he would come into town as a kid.

That work has come in myriad forms, from organizing the Jazz and Roots Festival (the latest edition of which was staged last month) to commissioning artists for mural projects to spearheading efforts to revitalize parks and other public areas, such as Stearns Square.

That work goes on today, but now, Plotkin brings a different perspective to it — sort of.

Indeed, he now not only works in downtown Springfield (and co-owns the office tower at 1350 Main St.), he lives there as well.

He’s a tenant at 31 Elm St., the mostly market-rate apartment complex created in the former Court Square Hotel, and has one of the sought-after units that looks out on the park. He could walk to his office in a minute, but because Court Square is under reconstruction, it takes two or three.

“It’s a blast living downtown,” he said simply, noting the sum of all there is to do in the city’s central business and entertainment district, almost all of it within easy walking distance of his new address.

Still, while he’s bullish on Springfield and its downtown, Plotkin noted there is considerable work to do to bring more tenants (of all kinds) and vibrancy to the many vacant, or mostly vacant, properties on Main Street and adjoining streets.

“We need to bring back Main Street — that’s what’s weak right now,” he said, referring to the broad stretch between the casino and the Arch. “We need to have more activity; we need to activate vacant spaces and attract more new businesses.

“The investment has not been made to change Main Street,” he went on, citing everything from long-stalled plans to redevelop the Hippodrome and adjacent hotel to the many decades that the floors above the Student Prince restaurant have been dormant. “And Main Street will drive everything in the city, as far as I’m concerned.”

Fenton agreed there is still work to be done, but took a moment, or two, to reflect on the progress he’s seen in the 14 years that he’s been on the City Council.

And it’s come in many forms, he said, starting with the $1 billion MGM Springfield development — how it has transformed that part of the downtown and how it has facilitated other developments, including 31 Elm, for which it served as one of many funding partners.

“It’s a delicate balance. For years, the city wanted to create safe neighborhoods, generate economic development, and promote safe schools. Why? So we could increase property values and attract more middle-class residents. But if property values go up too much, too quick, now you have an affordability crisis.”

“If you look back 15, 20 years ago, the downtown Springfield core was largely hollowed out,” he said. “We had an unimproved riverfront, no downtown grocer, a very dormant Worthington Street, and a South End that was dangerous to walk around in, especially in the areas where the casino is now — Union and Howard streets.

“When you think about the things we’ve done since … for a lot of it, we’ve been able to capitalize on the billion-dollar MGM investment,” he went on. “But a lot of it is also a lot of hard work and good economic-development practices.”

Elaborating, he noted everything from an AHL franchise — the city was without one for a short time — to some new restaurants and clubs on Worthington Street and beyond; from new hotels and the return of the Marriott flag to what was known for a time as the Tower Square Hotel to strong movement on market-rate housing.

Indeed, while Stockbridge Court, the massive complex just off Main Street near the South End, was an outlier for many years, Fenton noted, now there are several other projects open or in various phases of development.

“Stockbridge Court used to be an island of market-rate housing; it was an example of what could be done, but no one could seem to replicate it,” he said. “Now, we’ve got 31 Elm, which is full, has a waiting list, and is a really impressive property bringing people with spending power into the area.

“You also have the Willys Overland property, which is also at capacity, and interest in continuing to pursue this across the metro center, most recently with the McCaffery proposal and the city’s investment in the Masonic Block and our foresight in taking that property and conveying it to a developer that’s going to put more than 100 market-rate units there,” he went on. “Add all this stuff up, and it’s really made a difference down here.”

Discussions about planned and potential new housing (more on that in a bit) and the still-vacant properties downtown and what can be done with them lead Plotkin back to the long-held chicken-or-egg discussions about what Springfield needs most in his downtown — housing to bring residents with spending power to spur new developments, or new retail businesses and hospitality venues that will attract new residents and enable the region to retain more of the students who graduate from its many colleges and universities, strengthening its workforce.

 

More Living Proof

The reality is that both must happen concurrently, said Plotkin, adding that housing of all kinds, including market-rate and affordable, are needed to create a critical mass of people all hours of the day, every day.

“You don’t want to be a 9-to-5 city,” he explained. “Restaurants shouldn’t be closed on Saturday in a city like Springfield, but many of them are. We need to be a destination.”

As noted, there is considerable progress being made on the housing front, with initiatives ranging from 31 Elm to the Gemini Townhomes to the more than 100 units planned for the Clocktower Building and nearby Colonial Block.

In all, there are more than 850 units of housing in various stages of development, said Sheehan, listing everything from redevelopment of the former Federal Land Bank at 300-310 State St. (60 units), a project known as Residences at the Vault, to the reimagining of the former Kavanagh Furniture store (35 units) further down State Street; from work at the former Brightwood Elementary School (57 units) to an additional 29 units at the former site of the YMCA of Greater Springfield on Chestnut Street.

The last of those projects is another Home City initiative, said Gonzalez, noting that the agency has 130 units in the residential portion (floors 2-6) of the structure, and will redevelop the remaining space on the ground floor of the building, formerly used for offices and programming, to create an additional 29 efficiency units. The remaining back portion of the building will eventually be demolished.

The agency is also working on another homeownership initiative, this one involving the redevelopment of 10 vacant lots in the Old Hill neighborhood into single-family homes. The lots have been identified, he said, and the project is still in the planning phases.

Meanwhile, work proceeds at the Gemini project, which has several funding partners, including the state and the city, which has directed ARPA money toward the initiative. The first 20 of the units are expected to be completed by this fall, with the remaining 20 to come online next spring.

Home City prevailed in a request for proposals for the Gemini site, which, as noted, has been dormant for two decades, said Gonzalez, adding that the agency has been trying to develop a first-time-homebuyers initiative somewhere in the city, and most recently had targeted the site of the former Chestnut Middle School in the North End before refocusing on the Gemini site.

While the additional housing coming onto the market is a huge storyline, so too is what is happening with the values of existing property and what this trend means for the city, those who live there, and those who may want to live here in the future.

Indeed, according to the Warren Group, a real-estate information firm, the median sale price of a home in Springfield rose 68% in Springfield between 2018 and 2023, the highest rate in Hampden County and the highest in Western Mass., outside of a cluster in the Berkshires, a region that greatly benefited from the trend toward remote work.

Fenton told BusinessWest that this dramatic rise brings with it both benefits and potential drawbacks, especially when it comes to affordability, something Springfield has long been able to hype as one its strongest assets.

“It’s created increases in taxes and valuations and demand on services, and it’s also affected affordability — what’s affordable for a renting market or first-time homebuyers,” he asked. “It’s also a huge wealth generator for residents and homeowners who have historically had undervalued properties.

“It’s a delicate balance,” he went on. “For years, the city wanted to create safe neighborhoods, generate economic development, and promote safe schools. Why? So we could increase property values and attract more middle-class residents. But if property values go up too much, too quick, now you have an affordability crisis.”

 

Betting Lines

While housing is perhaps the biggest issue confronting the city, the casino, and its future, are others.

It was roughly five months ago that Bloomberg reported that MGM had expressed interest in selling one or more of its casinos, including the Springfield facility. That report spurred a good deal of conjecture about a new owner for the existing facility or even a different use for the property, said Fenton, who tried to put some of the chatter into perspective.

He said the property is strictly zoned for a casino and thus cannot be used for other purposes. Meanwhile, any new operator must adhere to the same host-community agreement signed by MGM Springfield, one that requires $25 million in annual payments to city entities, 12 entertainment acts in various downtown venues, and other provisions.

As for the current operation, as the six-year anniversary of its opening approaches, Louie Theros, who took the helm as president in January, said the facility has put the headwinds from COVID in its rear view, is now “fully operational,” and has seen the surge in gross gaming revenues experienced in the second half of 2023 continue into this year.

He said the goals moving forward are to focus on what the casino does well and do more of it — he put the ROAR Comedy Club shows and the Free Music Fridays in that category, for example — while also integrating more events at the MassMutual Center (which MGM Springfield manages) into the casino.

“We’ve got AEW Wrestling coming there in the next few months, an event that will be broadcast live on TNT — we’re hoping to do something with that event, obviously — and we have a boxing event coming up where we’ll bring the weigh-in to the casino, so we can bring people into the casino before and after the fight.”

Theros said MGM Springfield has hired Springfield native Andres Gomez, who was part of the initial team that helped launch the MGM Springfield brand in 2018 when he served as director of Restaurants and Nightlife Operations, as executive director of Hospitality.

“He’s really excited about activating the property; he has some great ideas and really wants to liven up the restaurant spaces and common areas,” Theros said. “I’m really excited about what we have coming up in the next year.”

Overall, he’s encouraged by what he’s seeing downtown, especially at 31 Elm, and is looking forward to the completion of the parking garage and the adjoining parking lot as well as Court Square. And, like others we spoke with, he said additional residential units — in the properties across Main Street from the casino and other locations — will bring additional vibrancy to the downtown area.

“To get more people living in the core city center brings more vibrancy to it,” he explained. “And the more people we have walking around, hanging out, and participating in economic redevelopment in the city … it really helps springboard other activity.

“I’m really excited about McCaffery putting hammer to nail and starting to redevelop those properties,” Theros went on, adding that, while the residential component of that project is important, so too is the retail component slated for the ground floors of those properties and the need for a broader retail plan for those buildings, MGM, and other properties in that area.

Sheehan agreed.

“McCaffery has brought back to us that there should be a district-wide, ground-floor commercial plan as to what kinds of businesses can function in this marketplace,” he said. “And all property owners in that district should be sharing in that plan so there’s continuity around what that ground-floor retail experience is, not just from MGM’s perspective, but for the whole district.”

He went on to say that development of such a comprehensive plan is one of many initiatives that fall into the category of long-term planning. He would also like to create a plan for redevelopment of the current Roderick Ireland Courthouse, property that will likely be demolished as the state pursues construction of a new facility elsewhere in the downtown area.

“I think that we should begin master planning now for what that site could ultimately be,” Sheehan told BusinessWest, adding that the city should also start planning now to assist businesses, like Performance Food Group, with expansion plans in various stages of development.

“We only have a limited amount of land in this city,” he said, “and we really need to be looking at ways in which we can be encouraging more existing business expansion in Springfield and creatively work to advance plans companies have for expansion — sooner rather than later.”