Once considered an armpit of apartment complexes in Springfield, a 187-unit complex on the 2700 block of MacArthur Boulevard, formerly called MacArthur Park, is being transformed under new ownership that acquired the property late last year and has been working ever since to change the image.

“We need to get the word out to people:

It’s not MacArthur Park anymore,” said Connie Riley, a deputy managing director with Cohen-Esrey Communities, a Kansas firm that acquired the complex last year with the help of federal tax credits.

Now called The Boulevard Townhomes, the project remains a work in progress, but there is lots of work going on. Besides new roofs on all buildings and new doors on units, a playground was installed within the past month. Landscaping crews and contractors scurry around the parking lot toting tools and pushing wheelbarrows.

Work is far enough along that the owners have invited civic leaders to the complex today for lunch and an open house, but there is much left to do. Cohen-Esrey plans to renovate every unit from the floor up.

So far, 30 units are finished and ready to rent. They look worlds apart from apartments with windows sealed by duct tape that crumbled under the complex’s former owner (“MacArthur Park’s Slumdog Millionaire,” Sept. 15, 2011). Appliances are new. Furnaces are new. Kitchen tile and flooring throughout is new in each renovated unit. Every unit will have its own new washer and dryer. There are plans for solar energy to provide lighting in the complex and power in the renovated community center.

“It’s the old adage: You don’t want to buy the best-looking house on the block,” quipped Tom Anderson, a managing director at Cohen-Esrey. “We were interested in this because of some of the new things happening along MacArthur Boulevard, particularly Hy- Vee going in.”

Anderson declined to say how much his company is spending, but it’s a lot.

“Multiple millions,” Anderson said. Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin, who led the fight to clean up complex, almost sounds like a rental agent as he praises the new owners and the progress they’ve made.

“This is just a major improvement in the housing stock at those apartments,” McMenamin said. “I think for those on modest incomes that have children that want to attend local schools want to be within foot distance of medical care and shopping and public transportation, it’s an excellent location.”

Once among the complex’s harshest critics, McMenamin in 2011 pushed the Springfield Housing Authority to stop issuing new Section 8 housing vouchers for the complex even as city building inspectors cracked down. Five years later, the alderman says that the cutoff of federal housing subsidies was “massively important” in the turnaround, reducing the number of Section 8 tenants from 70 to three.

“It was 90 percent Section 8 out there,” McMenamin said. “We basically turned off the spigot of federal money that was out there from the Springfield Housing Authority.”

The new owners are counting on Section 8 tenants but the ban on new housing vouchers for the complex remains in place. Jackie Newman, executive director of the Springfield Housing Authority, could not be reached for comment.

Even with a fraction of units renovated, McMenamin said he believes that the Section 8 ban should be lifted now. By ending the ban sooner rather than later, the alderman said, Section 8 tenants would be scattered throughout the complex as opposed to being concentrated in the last buildings set for renovation.

“The new owner has proven what they’re doing,” McMenamin said.

When Cohen-Ersey acquired the property, about 140 tenants were living at the complex, Riley said, but just 40 remain. Many who left weren’t paying rent, Riley said. In some cases, Cohen-Ersey helped with relocation expenses, she said. All of the remaining tenants had to fill out applications, which included criminal background checks and verification of income, she said.

The fight to fix the complex, which included the city obtaining a search warrant so that building inspectors could gain access to units, underscores the importance of building code enforcement, McMenamin said.

“We had to devote significant city resources in terms of inspectors and city staff time to turn this around,” the alderman said. “We need an aggressive broken-window approach to housing problems. When you see the early symptoms of a problem, jump on it early. Don’t wait.”

Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].