What's Old is New. Again.

Park Central may get a $1 million overhaul. Here’s the square deal.

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While South Avenue, Walnut Street and, to lesser extents, Pershing Street and Campbell Avenue are experiencing growth booms, Park Central Square remains a bit of an enigma. The architecture is dated, with dark brick features and a somewhat gaudy-looking fountain, the lighting is sparse and the crowd “suspect” in the minds of many suburbanites. The square’s hodgepodge of regulars includes bus-station types and transients, some of them more feral than others; grungy kids on skateboards; and a preppier, often intoxicated sort walking between bars and restaurants on South Avenue and Park Central East. And while that mix is undeniably urban, it’s not the sort of capital-generating crew needed to make ventures like Heer’s Tower work.

But if the City of Springfield has anything to do with it, that’s going to change.

A plan to overhaul Park Central Square is being kick-started by a consultant selection committee, a seven-person panel of city and civic leaders charged with picking a consulting firm for the project. Among the things they want to to look into, according to the committee’s chairman, assistant director of public works Phil Broyles:

• Better lighting. Committee members say the darkness that shrouds the square from dusk till dawn is a big deterrent to non-mischievous nighttime activity.
• More sidewalk space. Broyles says one idea is to actually shrink the width of the streets, limiting traffic further, to increase sidewalk space (though lanes would have to be wide enough for emergency vehicles.)
• A more pleasant aesthetic: Flowers, a new fountain, the possible removal of the canopy that still encircles much of the square, etc.
• More retail. It’s no great secret that retail is the next phase in downtown’s evolution—it’s a gentrification process that would ostensibly bring more high spenders and tax revenue to the district.

Hurdles to Growth

So far, retail is lacking on the square proper and shows no signs of coming soon. A contract has been signed for the former Club Drink and Burgundy Room building, on the northeast corner of the square at Benton Avenue, to become… another bar, according to Jerry Carroll, manager of the property and president of Morris Oil, the building’s owner. Meanwhile, across the square, Craig Wagoner’s The Kresge should soon house a tech-focused public library branch, lofts and office space. Riad and Trolley’s, successful restaurants both, have popular patios. Still, not much retail.

There is quite a bit of unprofitable office space, the chief culprit being the state office building adjacent to Heer’s Tower on the northwest corner of the square. “At 5 p.m. they shut the doors and walk away, when that whole [structure] would be wonderful for both loft apartments and businesses on the first floor,” says John Sellars, executive director of the History Museum for Springfield and Greene County and a square history expert. Broyles adds daytime traffic—people being dropped off and picked up for appointments at various offices—as an obstacle to pedestrian-friendliness.

And while rising property values could make the state amenable to a move, Broyles says the city won’t be forcing anyone out of any square properties. “I think the market will drive that,” Broyles says. “The city is not going to drive that bus.”

Bo Hagerman, a partner with Hagerman New Urbanism, an architecture and urban planning firm on the corner of the square and South Avenue, says foliage and outdoor lighting at the square’s perimeter are major needs. Hagerman, who says his firm at one point was hoping to consult on the square project, says extra parking was also batted around as a need at a square-focused “design idea session” with Drury architecture students about a year ago. “I think what’s wrong with the square is not so much the design as the rest of the downtown around it,” he says. That means the Heer’s Tower and Mr. Furniture projects need to be complete and attracting hundreds of people a day.

One wild idea, says Hagerman, was a roundabout in the middle of the square, which would push pedestrians outward into quadrants. The plan would increase sidewalk space (think bigger patios at Riad and Trolley’s) and traffic flow. Broyles says a roundabout is just one of the ideas on the table. “At this point, we’re not precluding anything,” he says.
Riad Matar, owner of Riad restaurant, says he’s heard of the plan, and thinks more parking and a brighter, more attractive square would help restaurants like Riad and Park Central East neighbor Trolley’s cater to an earlier dinner crowd—right now he says they get busy on weekends between 7 and 8 p.m., two hours later than restaurants Walnut Street. “People say ‘Oh, the square is scary,’ but it’s not,” Matar says.

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