It provided numerous proposals and plans, including images and financial and funding options. The Heritage Foundation, Leonatti added, was willing to take the building on. As they began demolition the day after they released their statement and a Historic Sites Committee meeting, we find it unlikely Mr. "The Heritage Foundation did not own the (618 building), so we were not in a position to market it. "Their statement regarding the demolition project is disingenuous at best," Leonatti said. Leonatti said Horace Mann unilaterally walked away from the discussions with the Heritage Foundation. "In light of their interest, Horace Mann offered to purchase and donate the building to the Heritage Foundation, but they cannot take on the building or its liability absent an investor to manage the project, assume the liability risk and shoulder the financial cost of the project.”ĭave Leonatti, a Springfield architect and vice president of the Heritage Foundation, said he wasn't surprised Horace Mann continued with demolition and that the company, outside of meeting with his group, has shown "little interest in being a good downtown neighbor." “Unfortunately, given the condition of the building brought on by more than a decade of vacancy, the cost to remediate the asbestos in the building and the dramatic increase in labor and materials, restoration of the building is not economically viable," Carley said in a statement released late Tuesday afternoon. Horace Mann higher-ups had been meeting with representatives from the Downtown Springfield Heritage Foundation over the past three months to discuss alternatives for the building.ĭon Carley, Horace Mann's executive vice president and general counsel, said while he appreciated the time the foundation put into creating proposals for the building, no willing investor stepped forward. More: Heritage foundation loses bid to slow down Horace Mann's East Washington Street project that is in the Central Springfield Historic District. officials said they were moving forward with redevelopment plans in the 600 block of East Washington Street that calls for the demolition of a building in a downtown historic district, much to the chagrin of Springfield preservationists.Ī day closing on ownership of the building, they said they were pressing on with a green space/parking lot for private and public use, as demolition began on a second building in the block.
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