As more apartments come on line, what does downtown Springfield need?

August 2015. It’s the month downtown boosters have been waiting for.

After sitting abandoned for 20 years, the Heer’s Building on Park Central Square — the center of the City of Springfield — is set to experience its rebirth this month, as residents move into the upscale loft apartments fashioned in what was once a department store. The same thing is set to happen not a quarter mile away at the former Woodruff building, now known as Sky Eleven, and the former Hotel Sterling, now simply The Sterling.

Over on Walnut Street, Hotel Vandivort is entering its second month of business. And the last two years have seen the renovation of the former Landmark building on North Jefferson Street and the McDaniel Building on Park Central East, both of which have been converted into living space.

It’s a dramatic turnaround from the mid- to late-1980s and early 1990s, when downtown Springfield — like most urban centers across the country — had bottomed out. Rusty Worley, executive director of the Downtown Springfield Association, attributes the local turnaround to two main factors.

“The passage of historic tax credits in the mid-90s was big,” he said. “That plus Missouri State realizing they didn’t want to go to war with their neighbors to the east and on the south, and so they focused their growth toward downtown.”

At the same time, Worley said, there was social and cultural change, too, as shows like “Friends” made young people view urban living differently than their parents.

In 2002, a study commissioned by the Urban Districts Alliance found 45 loft residential units located in the downtown and Commercial Street corridor. (For purposes of the analysis, lofts were defined as housing units located above commercial space, or part of a building converted from a prior office, retail or industrial use.)

A second study, commissioned in 2007, found 300 lofts. A third study, commissioned in 2012, found 506 — 88 percent of which were downtown.

“With the additions that have come on since then ... we’re going to be well above that,” said Worley. “We’re going to be pushing 900 units.”

Worley figures an average of 1.5 to 2 residents per loft. Which raises the question: What does downtown Springfield need?

As more living quarters come on line, what businesses and services are underrepresented? Walkability is an oft-cited draw to urban living — what errands prompt loft dwellers to hop in a car? From a business standpoint, what would continue downtown’s upswing?

Worley raised the question — and discussed what he sees as the answers — last year in a regular column he writes. He expanded on his opinions, and introduced a few more, in a July interview with the News-Leader.

• Health care, Worley said, is underrepresented downtown.

“One of things that follows residential development is a need for the health care side of it — an urgent care clinic and other specialty services, like a dentist, chiropractor ... those types of things ” he said. “We’re getting a larger critical mass of residents here that are going to make us attractive to health care providers.”

• Cell phone companies, Worley said, would appear to be a natural tenant downtown or by Missouri State University.

• On a more general note, Worley noted that downtown has a core of local retailers, but “the base should be broadened to feature more products to appeal to the wide demographic.”

“We want to continue to be that incubator where we have lower barriers to entry, opportunities for young and new entrepreneurs to get that start,” Worley said last month.

• More and more residents are coming with pets, Worley noted, and that means there’s a need for dog parks.

“There are some areas of downtown that are well-suited to accommodate pets, like the Park (Central) East area ... There are other areas where we’re going to have to be more deliberate in making those options available, like the Heer’s building,” Worley said. “There’s not areas other than the square, and we don’t want the square to be a dog park. How do we find convenient options for those residents?”

• Worley said that he’s noticed on visits to college towns further north of Springfield — Madison, Wisconsin, and Fort Collins, Colorado, for example — that “the number of people who’ve embraced a bike culture and alternative transportation is incredible.”

“With these new residents, we want to continue to have pedestrian and cycling options really grow and expand — making sure that people feel comfortable riding on our bike lanes, that we continue the work of Ozark Greenways in connecting the gaps between our trails that we have,” he said.

• Worley also wants to see continued growth in office space usage follow the influx of residential units. And he’s aiming big.

“We have a lot of interest from small, medium-sized offices. We would like to see downtown on the radar screen for corporate headquarters. We’re thrilled with BKD, Lathrop and Gage, Husch Blackwell — but we want to keep that momentum going and recruit more corporate offices to come down here. I think the St. Louis corridor is really well positioned for that.”

• Finally there’s the grocery store issue.

In his column last year, which was published in the Springfield Business Journal, Worley wrote: “The Bistro Market is a great asset for downtown. However, its 10,000 square feet can only hold a limited number of goods and services. Price Cutter could reach out to focus groups of current and prospective residents to see how they can meet the needs of customers by filling as much as possible from the downtown location and then supplement from the full-service stores.”

Since the column ran, Bistro Market’s grocery offerings have been scaled back further. Earlier this year, in conjunction with the opening of a Price Cutter a mile away, parent company Pyramid Foods removed freshly-prepared food options and much of the grocery options from the downtown store, stocking a wider selection of beer and wine in its place. (Pyramid Foods CEO Erick Taylor did not respond to a request for comment for this report.)

Worley told the News-Leader last month he sees the space as still in transition.

“I really see that over the next year or two continuing to evolve,” he said. “That’s certainly my hope. We want to work with them on that.”

Worley is also looking forward to another project already in the works. City Utilities is beginning work on a new bus transfer facility between North Grant Avenue and North Main Avenue, replacing the current one between Park Central West and West McDaniel Street. City Utilities spokesman Joel Alexander said Wednesday that grading work has begun at the site, and a portion of the retaining wall is under construction. Estimated completion date is late March.

“That takes public transportation out of the early 1970s and into the early 21st century, finally,” Worley said.

The News-Leader contacted members of the downtown community in person and via email. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Mark Hillenburg: Downtown loft dweller since 2014, about to move with his wife into the Heer’s building

• First and foremost, downtown needs a basic grocery store.

• I'd love to start a movement to lure a Trader Joe’s to SGF. Especially downtown.

• There’s no dry cleaner. There’s no hardware store.

• Downtown Springfield would really benefit from more jail space. The sketchy and homeless population scares a lot of people off. We have to solve that.

• Most importantly, SGF is deficit a Pie Shop. Oh how I wish someone would have bought Hamby's pie business and kept it running as a pie and coffee by the slice place. (Editor’s note: Hamby’s Steak House, a burger joint that used to be located at 901 N. Boonville, closed in 2002. Some people really liked its pie.)

Morris Dock: Owner, 401 S. Ave. (where he also lives)

• When I bought the building (401 S. Ave.), I didn’t know what I was going to put in the ground floor. Price Cutter approached me.

• I would like to have a grocery store returned to downtown. The Bistro has been turned into a liquor store.

• The Bistro never tried to control its parking lot. I think parking is a big issue.

• I’m looking at another property downtown. We need a good anchor before we buy a building. I want to bring more commercial downtown. We’re looking at sporting clothing, boutiques; we’re looking at medical use. Maybe even another restaurant.

• The more people we have that live downtown ... the quicker we’ll remove the wrong element that’s downtown.

Meganne Rosen O’Neal: Co-owner of Arts & Letters, 214 S. Campbell Ave.

• Obviously, we’re all really excited about the Woodruff, the Heer’s and The Sterling.

• I think it’d be nice to have something that’s a kitchen store, with small appliances. Things that cater to residential living. If you need to go buy a wine cork or a toaster, there’s nothing like that.

• Maybe a shoe store, or a hardware store of some kind. Ace Hardware is on Commercial Street. It’s not too far, so that’s where I go.

• We’ve talked about stepping up beautification efforts downtown. I’m an artist, so I’m very visual and that’s important to me. Colorful storefronts. Plants. Good lighting.

Shawn Matthews: CEO of Swagbot Creative, 210 E. Walnut Street

• Swagbot has been serving Springfield since 2007, and we have been downtown nearly that entire time. We have seen the evolution of development for nearly a decade — what has worked and what hasn't.

• Whether it's handmade, hand-churned, old-fashioned or a chain like Baskin-Robbins, Springfield needs ice cream downtown.

• We have seen Springfield's food culture grow over the past five years. We need options currently on the southside — Indian, Vietnamese or Korean (or fusion).

• We need a real, honest-to-goodness market downtown, with a legit deli.

Shaun Supernaw: Downtown resident; operator of The Vapor Vendor, 330 South Ave.

• Honestly, this is the only downtown area I’ve known for a long period of time. I don’t have anything to gauge it on.

• The thing I found most helpful was the grocery store portion of the Bistro.

• I don’t see a lot for children that are around downtown.

• Downtown only seems to start jumping at night. Anyone comes in from out of town, they want something to do before 9 p.m.

Anastasia McFarland: Visiting downtown on Tuesday

• I’m downtown all the time.

• I have a 5-year-old. She loves coming downtown, but only to Founders Park.

• We need more for kids. The ice festival at Jordan Valley — stuff like that, that keeps them interested and is family-oriented.

Jeff Anderson: Sales manager at Queen City Cycles, 301 W. Walnut St.

• Queen City has been downtown for 10 years.

• A hardware store or dedicated pet store is something I’d like to see downtown.

• I’d like to see a medium-sized music venue. We have the small ones like the bars and a big one with the Gillioz.