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Say You Can LLC wants to build six attached, single-unit residences around a central courtyard.
Rendering provided by city of Springfield
Say You Can LLC wants to build six attached, single-unit residences around a central courtyard.

Developer seeks blight status for Rountree ‘pocket neighborhood’

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Last edited 11:45 a.m., Dec. 13, 2018

Springfield City Council last night held a public hearing for a so-called pocket neighborhood in Rountree that would establish a community within a community.

Council is being asked to approve a redevelopment plan and blight report for the East Cherry Pocket Neighborhood Redevelopment Area. The properties in question for blight are 1361 and 1365 E. Cherry St., located on half an acre north of the Cherry Street and Fremont Avenue intersection. The area contains two vacant residential structures, according to city documents.

Pictures presented during the council meeting showed deterioration on both properties with foundation cracks, rust, broken windows and electrical problems, among other issues.

Councilmen Richard Ollis and Tom Prater both questioned how the city determines blight, since city officials in their recommendation to council had not deemed the property at 1365 E. Cherry St. as blighted.

The blight report and redevelopment plan was submitted by property owner Say You Can LLC, which is run by Kelly Byrne and Springfield native and NBA player Anthony Tolliver. Say You Can, a multifamily real estate developer primarily in the senior and student segments, had plans for a $5 million mixed-use development with lofts above retail space at 1405-1425 E. Cherry St. and 527 S. Pickwick Ave. turned down by council last year amid a moratorium on rezonings in Rountree. The moratorium ended in December 2017.

Byrne’s latest plans call on the demolition of the existing structures within the redevelopment area and the construction of six attached, single-unit residential townhouses around a central courtyard. The buildings are designed to be two-stories tall.

The project is slated to cost $1.4 million, with Say You Can investing an estimated 25 percent equity, according to city documents. A loan would cover the remaining costs, said Sarah Kerner, the city’s director of economic development. Under city code, the minimum level of authorized tax abatement for approved redevelopment plan projects is 50 percent. Under the but-for test provision of the Chapter 99 city workable program, the project would qualify for a total 65 percent tax abatement to reduce development and operating costs, Kerner said.

Five Rountree residents last night expressed concerns about parking.

Lisa Lewis lives directly behind the 1361 E. Cherry St. property.

“My biggest concern is that there are six designated parking places for this development, but yet you could have up to 12 people living there,” she said. “I know that these developers are usually geared toward student housing, so I just have to assume that’s what we’ll have there.”

Lewis also said an alley in the area is overused and not well maintained.

Council is scheduled to vote on the development proposal on Jan. 14.

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we are tired of developers buying property in our center city neighborhoods and leaving them vacant and they refuse to do up keep because the plan is to tear them down. This business plan was common for John Q. Hammons. As we all saw when he died, his estate was bankrupt. If you buy a home in our neighborhood, keep it up.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018
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