Members of the Springfield City Council are largely mum about a local investor group’s interest in the Hammons Tower that could hinge on the city buying an adjacent parking garage.
Three council members have responded to interview requests from the Hauxeda, and only one offered expanded comments.
Councilmember Brandon Jenson said it is vitally important for the city and private interests to continue to invest in the downtown and Jordan Valley area.
But, he said “it would be difficult to justify” acquiring the Jordan Valley Car Park at the proposed price of $16 million to $17 million, “unless there were greater economic and community benefits beyond what” has been outlined thus far.
“For me, at least there would need to be something more, especially addressing our residential housing shortage, if I were to justify that sort of investment,” Jenson said.
Council members Derek Lee and Monica Horton offered limited comments in response to interview requests, citing that no proposal is actually before the City Council for consideration.
“This has not really been presented to us,” Lee said. “We were emailed the white paper, and then we’re going to have a meeting where more information, I assume, will be provided. So I don’t really have a perspective other than the kind of things that (Mayor) Ken McClure said — I agree with all of those. It’s an important corridor, and I think we need to look at every option. It’s a very preliminary thing that you’re looking at.”
Documents outline proposed sale of Atrium properties
The proposed sale of the Jordan Valley Car Park to the city and the Hammons Tower and John Q. Hammons Building to a local development group were outlined across various documents obtained by the Daily Citizen under the Missouri Sunshine Law.
All three properties are held by Atrium Hospitality, a hotel and asset management company owned by Jonathan Eilian. Atrium took over the properties in 2018 through a bankruptcy settlement between John Q. Hammons’ estate and JD Holdings, an investment firm also owned by Eilian.
Documents detail how the city and development group could finance the purchases, the proposed renovation and reinvestment into the office buildings and the potential development of surrounding properties that could be brought on as a result of the transaction, including a “ballpark/mixed-use” project around Hammons Field, a long-sought convention center and investment into the University Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, which is also owned by Atrium.
The developers are not clearly identified through the records, though an email exchange concerning the proposed sale of the Hammons Tower and Hammons Building include local developers Riley Shantz and his mother Debbie Shantz Hart.
Debbie Shantz Hart told the Springfield Business Journal that M6E LLC is behind the proposed purchase. The LLC was organized by Ben Shantz, an attorney with Spencer Fane LLP. Riley and Ben Shantz are both sons of Debbie Shantz Hart, who served as general counsel for John Q. Hammons.
In an earlier interview, McClure said that the city’s purchase of the parking garage doesn’t make sense “at this time,” but acknowledged his position could change, emphasizing the need for the St. Louis Street corridor to be further developed.
With many of the documents dated or provided to city officials in early 2023, the current status of the proposals is unclear, though it appears it is not actively being considered by the City Council.
In August 2023, the city received an appraisal report “for the potential acquisition of the (parking garage) by the City of Springfield.” The car park was valued at $3,840,000 to $5,980,000, based on future revenue estimates.
The 977-space car park was constructed in the early 2000s at a cost of $12,709,504. Originally owned by the city, it was sold to John Q. Hammons in 2008 for $7 million with an agreement that the hotelier would build an Embassy Suites in the adjacent 1.7-acre lot, a project that never came to fruition. The city reacquired the lot, though Hammons retained the car park, which was later transferred to JD Holdings.
Housing top of mind for Councilmember Jenson
Like McClure, Councilmember Jenson stressed the need to support investment in the Jordan Valley area, but expressed concern with the proposal outlined in the story first reported by the Daily Citizen, namely of the history of the car park and the lack of additional housing included in the proposal, outside of a potential mixed-use development.
However, Jenson, a staunch advocate of public transit, acknowledged the importance of parking for future residential development.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of transportation infrastructure that focuses solely on personal vehicular traffic, recognizing the cost of that,” Jenson said. “But I think that we do have to face the reality that we live in a car centric city and so the importance of parking for any type of truly dense development to occur, but especially residential development — which is something that our community sorely needs — really depends on the availability of parking.”
While skeptical of the proposal, Jenson said he sees a “path forward if there's an opportunity to leverage an acquisition like this with the renovation of some of those properties surrounding it” and addition of residential development in the area.
“…Especially if, by subsidizing the parking that may be required for a new development with parking that the city publicly owns, then you get the opportunity to potentially negotiate for mixed income development or mixed income residential units or to negotiate for higher quality residential development,” Jenson said, pointing to the renovation of the Heer’s Building following the city’s construction of the Heer’s Car Park.
Ultimately, Jenson said that he would like to know, “with some certainty,” the broader economic impact and community benefits of the purchase proposal and associated projects.
Lee said there’s parts of the proposal “that sound good, and there’s parts of it that I just don’t know about,” and indicated the City Council was awaiting further interpretation from city staff.
Councilmember Monica Horton said in an email that she feels indifferent to the proposed sale of the properties “with no active proposal now or for the foreseeable future for city council to consider.”
