Page 24 - BusinessWest June 27, 2022

Construction
History
in the
Remaking
Court Square Project Brings the Past
into the Present — and Future
Crews working on the $64 million initiative to transform the former Court Square Hotel in downtown Springfield into market-rate housing say the project takes them back in time. Actually, it takes them to several different periods of time — from the property’s days as prominent hotel to more recent days, when it hosted a popular tavern and several other businesses. While doing this time-traveling, these same crews are living in the present and confronting a number of challenges as they usher in the next chapter in this property’s intriguing history.
DBy George O’Brien
ave Fontaine Jr. calls it a “cool memento.” Actually, it’s turned out to be more than that.
He was referring to a bid package submitted by his firm, Fontaine Bros. Inc., for redevelopment of the former Court Square Hotel in the heart of downtown Springfield. The date on the three-ring binder, crammed with interior and exterior photographs and other materials, is
2000.
And that wasn’t the first — or only — time the company had submitted a bid on a
project to transform the property, now vacant for more than 25 years, for a different use — endeavors that never saw the light of day for one reason for another.
There have been so many in fact, that Fontaine, vice president of the company start- ed by his great-grandfather and his brother, had some humorous material for use when he was asked to say a few words at one of the many ceremonies to mark milestones for the project that actually made it off the drawing board — a $64 million initiative to con- vert the property into 71 units of market-rate housing.
“I joked that I believe I’m the third generation of Fontaines to bid on the project,” he told BusinessWest, adding that both his father, Dave Sr., and grandfather, Lester, were involved with similar proposals. “We’ve been pricing it over decades, with at least a dozen iterations and many different planned uses.”
More than a quarter century after the first such bid, Fontaine is finally at work in Court Square, with one of its banners hanging on the front of the property. It’s an intrigu- ing project, said Fontaine, one of many the company has handled that falls in the broad
Dave Fontaine Jr.
24 JUNE 27, 2022 CONSTRUCTION BusinessWest