Page 8 - BusinessWest August 22, 2022

Community Spotlight
Springfield’s Puzzle Pieces Are Coming Together
By George O’Brien
‘Good traffic.’
That’s the phrase used by Springfield
Mayor Domenic Sarno — who acknowl- edged that it is somewhat of an oxymoron — to describe traffic that is, well, positive in nature.
This would be traffic generated by vibrancy, by people coming into a city from somewhere else; traffic indicative of progress, as opposed to insuf- ficient infrastructure, poor planning, or both.
Springfield saw quite a bit of this ‘good traffic’ prior to the pandemic, said Sarno, noting that it was generated by concerts at MGM Springfield’s venues, Thunderbirds games, conventions and college graduations at the MassMutual Cen-
ter, special gatherings like the Winter Weekend staged by the Red Sox in early 2020, or any com- bination of the above. Sometimes, a random Friday night would be enough to generate such traffic.
And after two years of relative quiet in the wake of the pandemic, the ‘good traffic’ is start- ing to make a comeback, as is the city as a whole, said Sarno, Springfield’s longest-serving mayor, with 14 years in the corner office, adding that there is promise for a whole lot more in the months and years to come, as pieces to a puzzle come together — or back together, as the case may be.
“Before COVID hit, we had a tremendous amount of momentum going on in Springfield, not just in the downtown, but in all our neigh- borhoods,” he told BusinessWest. “I think we’re starting to get our mojo back.”
These pieces include everything from a resur- gent Thunderbirds squad, which made it all the way the AHL finals after taking a full year off due to COVID, to new housing, including the long- delayed renovation of the former Court Square hotel; from a casino in comeback mode, buoyed by the promise of sports gambling, to the return of the Marriott brand downtown after more than $40 million in renovations to the property in Tower Square; from new restaurants and clubs on Worthington Street to a new parking garage soon to rise where an existing structure is being razed.
The “state-of-the-art and environmentally friendly parking garage,” as Sarno described
it, will be part of a larger development in the area around the MassMutual Center, an initia- tive aimed at bringing people to that site before, during, and perhaps after events (more on that later).
The city still faces a number of stern challeng- es, many of them COVID-related, said Tim Shee- han, the city’s chief Development officer, citing such matters as the impact of remote work and
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8 AUGUST 22, 2022
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
BusinessWest
Springfield at a glance
YEAR INCORPORATED: 1852
POPULATION: 155,929
AREA: 33.1 square miles
COUNTY: Hampden
RESIDENTIAL TAX RATE: $18.82 COMMERCIAL TAX RATE: $39.04
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $35,236 MEDIAN FAMILY INCOME: $51,110
TYPE OF GOVERNMENT: Mayor, City Council
LARGEST EMPLOYERS: Baystate Health, MassMutual Financial Group, Big Y Foods, Mercy Medical Center, Center for Human Development, MGM Springfield
* Latest information available