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Date: 10/26/2023
SPRINGFIELD — In a surprise announcement, the city revealed it had acquired a substantial piece of property officials hope will spark economic development along the State Street corridor.
Mayor Domenic Sarno said at an Oct. 19 press conference that the city would take ownership of the Vibra Hospital site on State Street with sights set on redeveloping the property. The city took control of the property through a conveyance from Vibra Healthcare that cost taxpayers a single dollar.
According to Sarno, the 17-plus-acre property is currently assessed at $6.4 million.
The mayor touted the opportunity the land represented, noting the city was “land poor” and did not often have large swaths of developable land at its disposal. Chief Development Officer Tim Sheehan said the acquisition presents the city a chance to bring “real, holistic economic development” to the area.
State Rep. Bud Williams (D-Springfield) said the Boston Road and State Street corridor is the most-traveled in the city and stressed, “We don’t need this building to go dark.”
He added, “This will help stabilize the rest of [State Street]. This is the last major piece of property on State Street. If this building goes dark, it’s a bad example for the city, for the district and for the neighborhood.”
He and state Sen. Jake Oliveira (D-Ludlow) pledged to support the development efforts on the state level. A representative from Sen. Adam Gomez’s (D-Springfield) office was also on hand.
“If you look at economic development here in Western Massachusetts, it requires the local, state and federal partnerships, also with business and the quasi-independent agencies like MassDevelopment to ensure successful redevelopment projects,” Oliveira said, using the ongoing Ludlow Mills in his hometown as an example of collaboration and creative reuse of vacant properties.
Sheehan said the agreement was the culmination of two years of discussions and negotiations. Vibra Healthcare had originally announced it would close its Springfield facility in 2017, but that closure was delayed before layoffs for its remaining employees in advance of an August closure were announced earlier this year. In the meantime, the property had been for sale for roughly two years and while some developers showed interest, nothing concrete ever materialized. According to Sheehan, discussions with Vibra about the property initially involved the company requesting millions of dollars before eventually essentially walking away from the site altogether.
“It should also be noted that that decision wasn’t made lightly … their initial offers to us were significant frontage in terms of our cost of acquisition,” Sheehan said. “It’s been a growing process and a negotiation that has lasted over two years … there was significant movement made on their end.”
Located at 1400-1414 State St., across from MassMutual’s Springfield headquarters, the site was originally home to the Springfield Isolation Hospital built in the early 1930s and was also home of the Springfield Health Department at one point. The newer wing, connected to the original hospital building, was constructed in the 1950s. The complex served as the city’s municipal hospital until the mid-1990s when it was sold. Most recently, Vibra Healthcare utilized the more modern facility while the original building was decommissioned as a medical facility and has been vacant for many years.
Sheehan said the next step in the process, which could take approximately a year, would involve planning and identifying acceptable uses for the site and determining if a zoning change would be necessary. Sheehan indicated a zoning change was likely given the heavy restrictions on commercial enterprises associated with the property’s current Residence C zoning. That change would require City Council approval. After that process is complete, the city could put the land out to bid through a request for qualifications or request for proposal. Sheehan did not speak to specific zoning but anticipated the requested change would create flexibility for mixed use developments.
Ward 3 City Councilor Melvin Edwards, who also chairs the council’s Planning & Economic Development Subcommittee, said he was “excited” and “hopeful” following the announcement.
“I have lived in the city for six decades now and I always thought we did a poor job of planning into the future. We don’t get this many opportunities too often – to have such a large site available to the city and to be able to sit down and have a clear, precise plan on how to develop it,” he said. “I’m eager to see what it will look like when they present back to the council.”
After the announcement, Reminder Publishing spoke with Pine Point Neighborhood Council Executive Director John Lysak, who said he was not aware of the city’s acquisition of the property in advance.
“It’s one of the biggest pieces of developable property we have, and I’d certainly like to see it developed and I’d like to see it bring jobs into the neighborhood,” he said. “One of my biggest concerns that I have is that I hope the city keeps us involved and up to speed on what happens from here. I’m also curious what the definition of ‘mixed use’ would be.”
In addition to practical zoning and land usage issues, questions regarding the fate of the original Isolation Hospital building loom. The Springfield Preservation Trust has been actively involved in efforts to preserve the Art Deco structure, which was named to Preservation Massachusetts’ 2022 Most Endangered Historic Resources List. James Boone of the trust told Reminder Publishing nearly a year ago the organization was undertaking efforts to change the age of buildings protected by the city’s Demolition Delay Ordinance from 100 years to 75 and create a local historical district for the site.
The City Council had granted unanimous initial approval for a local historical district, however, at the council’s Oct. 18 meeting, members decided to direct the Historical Commission to contract an independent study on such a district. Edwards explained that when the initial vote was taken, councilors “had no vision or thought as to the city acquiring this property,” and so the issue required additional consideration.
“I am not going to be able to say the council won’t come to the same conclusion again if properly brought to us after the independent study by the Historical Commission,” he added. “I think that the study needs to be very expansive and inclusive of the fact that the city now controls the property, that there’s potential for development that may be impeded by the creation of that [district], and there may be a vision or plan that says that the historic district may be advantageous to the larger parcel. It’s just premature to say one way or the other because we don’t have enough information.”
Sheehan said as part of that study he would request a comprehensive site assessment for the Isolation Hospital in order to provide the city with insight on the existing conditions within the building, potential adaptive reuses and the likelihood it could be placed on the National Register of Historic Properties. Without a place on the register, he said, the building would not be eligible for tax credits associated with the its redevelopment.
The Pine Point Neighborhood Council can be counted among those interested in preserving the Isolation Hospital Building. Lysak said the council was approached at a meeting last fall by a potential developer and one of the major concerns expressed was uncertainty about the future of the structure.
“Pine Point doesn’t have a lot of historic or architecturally significant buildings,” he noted.
For his part, Sarno said the building’s history would not be its saving grace or act as a deterrent for a development.
“The city has an outstanding record of historic preservation where it makes sense not to hinder economic development … If something works and there’s a historic component there, fine, but I’m not going to hinder economic development,” he said, adding, “I’m not going to leave a building dormant and then have a developer come here and say, ‘I’d like to grab that old Vibra building, but I’m not doing anything if that [Isolation Hospital] building is there.’”