When Jeff Neal bought the Columbia Traders building near Fifth and Main streets three years ago, he admits the idea of reusing historic buildings in an effort to save downtown districts and make a profit was “dicey” at best, and says it still is in many ways.
“We shopped a business plan for a year before we found a bank that would bite,” Neal said. But standing next to two other men during Friday’s Regional Economic Summit at Missouri Southern State University who have made the downtown-loft concept work in other parts of the state, Neal said the idea of sustainability is growing in popularity.
Neal was a panelist for the “Reusable Spaces: Downtown Lofts” session along with fellow developers Matt Miller, owner of the Matt Miller Co. in Springfield and recent purchaser of the old Howsmon’s building on Fifth Street and Virginia Avenue, and Jay Burchfield, one of the Wilgate Development Co. of Columbia principals in historic building projects in Neosho.
All three developers said the biggest change for downtown revitalization in Missouri is the addition of state historic tax credits. Along with federal historic tax credits, neighborhood revitalization credits and environmental tax breaks, Burchfield said the state credits make the projects economically viable for towns such as Neosho where he won’t be able to set rent high enough to make up the costs of renovating the building.
“Those tax credits need to stay,” Burchfield said. “The buildings we do without tax credits are easy, but without tax credits, we’re over on Range Line developing, not Main Street.”
Paving the way
Both Miller and Burchfield applauded Neal’s Columbia Traders project as a gutsy first move that paves the way for other developers to come into the area and renovate more downtown historic buildings.
“We’re probably following more than leading,” Burchfield said. “When we buy buildings and restore them, there was already a Jeff Neal who did it and set the stage for us. And we’ve found more is more in downtown revitalization. The more people we have downtown, the more people want to live downtown.”
With a growing number of loft apartments in downtown Joplin, the developers said the next steps for Joplin include adding a mix of stores and services like a downtown pharmacy. The biggest challenge for these developers, Neal said, will be the city’s mindset and appetites when it comes to shopping and eating out, redirecting consumers to the downtown area.
“It used to be a competition between Range Line and Main Street, well, Range Line won that contest a long time ago,” Neal said. “But I hope Joplin has grown to a point where it’s no longer a competition; it’s about offering variety.
“We’re trying to change the mindsets of people who for the last 30 years have been going to Range Line for everything,” he said.
Annual event
Sustainability was only one of the regional issues tackled by a group of 82 panelists during the first Regional Economic Summit organized by the Regional Development Center. Tom Simpson, MSSU political science professor and director of the Regional Development Center, said there were nearly 200 attendees for the all-day event and he hopes to make it an annual session.
“We wanted to start creating a sense of a bigger community than just the city we live in,” Simpson said. “This was about the leadership of individual citizens. We can’t look to the politicians to do it. We have an enormous amount of potential in our communities; you start realizing that these people are your neighbors.”
Other forms
Columbia Traders was also used as an example in the summit’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings session. The national certification is concerned with sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
While residential interest in LEED certification is increasing, many businesses are slower to make the change. Jeff Tabor, vice president of construction management, attended the panel discussion on LEED certification with several of his employees and said one of the first things he hears when he sits down with potential home builders is interest in LEED elements. On the commercial side, Tabor said most businesses aren’t ready to make the leap from current standards to LEED certification, but he is seeing more and more companies take sustainability concepts and use them in their stores.
“A lot of schools are now doing auto temperature and auto lighting,” Tabor said. “If they know the auto lighting’s going to save them money, they’re willing to do that. There are little things you can do that don’t have to go as far as waterless urinals.”
Rob Wood, director of the Institute of Ecolonomics at MSSU, said the upfront costs for LEED elements are greater than a traditional building project, but the long-term savings almost always win out. The problem is educating businesses on the idea of sustainability, what options are open to residential and commercial buildings and how to use the equipment.
“Trying to educate people, that’s what it’s all about,” Wood said. “There’s this balance between it’s great to have the certification, but we can do a lot even without the LEED certification.”
Wood used the example of his father taking small steps like installing an air source heat pump, changing all his light bulbs and putting in new windows. Wood said his father saw the result of his small changes in lower power bills only one month later.
“Little things can make a hell of a difference,” he said.