The Loose Goose development may be even bigger than imagined when the project was announced in 2022.
GDL Enterprises, the development group for the Loose Goose property on the southwest corner of Grand Street's intersection with Grant Avenue, has purchased an additional building to the south and is revising development plans, according to partner Andrew Doolittle.
The development group purchased the building located at 1037 S. Grant Ave., which previously housed Grant Avenue Pet Hospital, Doolittle said in an email to the Hauxeda.
“That acquisition significantly increased the size of our site,” Doolittle wrote in the email. “We're in the process of re-analyzing the site to fully utilize the land we have.”
The Loose Goose was introduced in 2022 as a mixed use concept with a coffee shop with indoor seating and drive-thru window, a food truck parking area with seating, yard-games, pickleball courts, an outdoor “walk-up yard bar,” package liquor sales and off-street parking.
GDL Enterprises is the development group for the Loose Goose. Its investors include Doolittle, Willie Grega and Cameron LaBarr. Josh Widner, owner of Good Spirits & Co., and Michelle Billionis, a partner in the Coffee Ethic, have been brought on as hospitality partners.
The developers initially wanted to build a 1,500-square foot building, along with a 280-square foot rental kiosk and bar, a parking lot with 33 spaces and six pickleball courts. The Loose Goose developers have not requested any financial incentives from the City of Springfield to develop the property.
The timeline for completion is still up in the air, Doolittle said.
“We don't currently have a timeline, but would hope to begin the project soon after the Grant Avenue Parkway public project is completed,” Doolittle wrote in the email.
The first sections of the Grant Avenue Parkway roadway improvements are underway and will continue throughout 2024, according to the project's website.
The former Grant Avenue Pet Hospital building has 3,498 square feet of space and had a total market value of $251,600, according to Greene County Accessor's Office records. Doolittle did not disclose a financial investment for the new building in the email sent to the Hauxeda.
The Grant Avenue Parkway project is a plan to create an off-street pedestrian and bicycle pathway along Grant Avenue from Sunshine Street to College Street in Downtown Springfield. It is funded through a $20 million federal grant with a $5 million local match.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story may have given the impression that Josh Widner is one of the investing partners in GDL Enterprises and the Loose Goose. He is not. Widner's role in the project is that of a hospitality partner.
