Looming over the city’s historic Court Square and across from city hall, a multi-story apartment building remained shuttered for decades as Springfield seemed to develop around it.
But over the past few months, extensive, multi-year renovations to the building on 13-31 Elm Street finally came to fruition as its owners opened up the 74 units to tenants. They were all leased within a month-and-a-half.
“I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the COVID pandemic for making this project even harder,” said Michael O’Brien, executive vice president of WinnCompanies, one of the developers that revitalized what was once the Court Square Hotel.
O’Brien and others spoke in-detail about the project outside of the 31Elm Apartments entrance Tuesday afternoon.
Highlighted throughout the event was a public-private partnership that made the project possible — involving the state, the City of Springfield, MGM Springfield and MassMutual, among other groups.
“This project has evaded the taxpayers and the residents of this region for a generation,” said Springfield City Council President Michael Fenton. “It's been 30 years since this building was shuttered, and it was a true public private partnership that came together to make it happen.”
According to the office of Mayor Domenic Sarno, the four parties provided at least $48.5 million in construction and permanent financing. Another $10.8 million in federal and state historic tax credit equity came from the U.S. National Park Service and Massachusetts Historical Commission.
Bank of America also provided $12.2 million in construction and financing, along with the equity for the tax credits.
As Fenton mentioned, the plan wasn’t always to rehab the 131,000-square-foot building between city hall and the casino. One scenario involved a project with fewer apartments in another spot.
“This project was originally envisioned, at least the credits that came from the MGM deal, as a 52-unit development further down the street,” he said. “It was originally envisioned to be on the corner of Howard and Main, and it was through the ingenuity of the mayor and this administration and working collaboratively with MGM Resorts International, that we were able to turn those dollars around,into 75 units here at this historic property.”
Around 60 of the units will be market rate apartments, according to Sarno, while the remaining spaces would be middle-income units.
According to MassHousing, which is also involved in the project, the property was rapidly deteriorating when work to restore it got underway.
On Tuesday, the restoration efforts by the Fontaine Brothers construction company and others were on full display, including the building's original wooden trim found along walls and the tall windows lining them.
According to Mayor Sarno, work to rehab historic buildings and add to the housing market is ongoing across the city, with a whole set of projects either nearly finished or underway.
"Gemini's already being built, State Street - the old school department,” Sarno noted. “And then you're going to see, up further on State Street, in a few weeks, we're going to do a ribbon-cutting at the old Firestone/Knox building across from the Indian Motorcycle building.”
As for the Court Square developments – other projects include a restaurant, as described by Peter A. Picknelly, who’s OPAL Real Estate Group was a co-developer of 31 Elm.
“Once the city completes its renovation in Court Square, we are going to build a 250-seat restaurant called ‘Copper and Kin’ that will be managed and operated by Springfield's best restaurateur, the Yee family,” he said.
He added that the restaurant will open later in fall 2024.
