The Springfield Economic Development Commission has blessed a mayoral plan to spend $125,000 on a consultant who would gather proposals to develop an oversized city block just north of the governor’s mansion, vet developers and recommend a plan that would likely require millions of dollars in public subsidies.

Options for subsidies include tax increment financing, federal block grants, tax credits and issuance of bonds backed by the city. City officials have been ballparking the overall cost at $30 million, public and private money, but Jeffrey Simon, senior principal with Stantec, told the commission that’s a conservative figure. Stantec’s fee would be paid with tax increment financing money.

“If anything, $30 million is on the low end,” Simon said. “That number, I think, could be substantially greater.”

Mayor Jim Langfelder wasn’t expecting such a high price tag.

“When he said it was above $30 million, I was kind of surprised,” Langfelder told the commission prior to Monday’s vote.

Nonetheless, Langfelder urged the commission to approve the plan to hire Stantec. The city council will have the final say.

There are no firm plans for the property, although city officials are talking about residential with some other type of use. Langfelder said that the project should be more than residential with retail at street level.

“What we want is more of a game changer that can change the dynamics of that area and move into other areas of downtown,” Langfelder said.

At $30 million, the project would be bigger than Scheels, said commissioner Brad Schaive, who voted against hiring Stantec.

“There’s mixed use all over town that’s empty,” Schaive said. “I don’t know that there have been a lot of projects in downtown Springfield that have been successful.”

The city has already spent more than $1.5 million acquiring the property. Former Mayor Mike Houston once called the land “the most developable block” in the city.

“It’s like a blank easel awaiting an artist to draw a masterpiece,” the former mayor said last year when he appointed a committee to solicit letters of interest from developers.

The city got seven letters of interest, but Langfelder, who won election in April, wants to restart the development process.

Commissioner Mark Vance, a senior vice president at Carrolton Bank, warned the city will have to fund as much as 40 percent of the project’s cost to make it pencil out for a private developer.

“It’s going to require a subsidy, a significant one,” said Vance, who voted in favor of hiring Stantec in a 5-2 vote, with Commissioner Karen Conn joining Schaive in saying no.

The vacant YWCA building on the site will have to be razed for redevelopment. Langfelder told the commission that the city’s public works department about two months ago concluded that the building can’t be saved. The roof is open to the sky, bricks are falling and there are asbestos issues, he said.

“That’s a shame,” said Conn, who told the mayor that she and her husband Court two years ago offered to pay to have the roof sealed.

In an interview, Conn said that she and her husband a few years ago offered to buy the YWCA building, but the city discouraged them on the theory that it would be better to develop the property as a whole instead of approaching development on a piecemeal basis. Conn would not disclose what the couple offered.

“It was dead serious,” said Conn, whose sucessful rehab projects include The Inn at 835 and Obed and Isaac’s Microbrewery.

It would have cost as much as $25,000 to seal the roof, Conn said.

“We were willing to take the cash out of our own pocket and do that – it’s the principle,” she said. “We’ve got to quit tearing down our historic structures. It tears apart the fabric of our historic community. … The mindset from day one was to tear it down.”

The city council in 2008 rejected a proposal to spend $2.2 million in TIF money to turn the YWCA building into condominiums, which would have cost an estimated $7.7 million. It’s a given that the project should include housing, Conn said, but condominiums built from scratch won’t pencil out.

Conn also questioned whether a mix of residential and commercial development is the best idea. There have been at least seven studies on what sorts of development should go downtown, she said, and spending money on a consultant isn’t the best use of money.

“When we have all this vacant office space and retail space downtown, why do we need mixed use?” she asked. “I’m not against the project. I’m not against development. But is this (hiring Stantec) the most responsible means for spending remaining TIF dollars?”

Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.