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The verdict is finally in on what will become of the old Heer's department store building in downtown Springfield. KSMU's Jennifer Moore reports.
St. Louis developer Kevin McGowan announced Monday afternoon what many Springfield residents have waited a long time to find out: he will turn the historic Heer's building on the square into 40 loft apartments, and will establish a restaurant on the ground floor.
The construction will begin June 2 and the first residents will move in 14 months later.
McGowan helped transform downtown St. Louis and is nationally known for his work. He praised Springfield leaders today for their vision efforts to revive the downtown area and says he hopes this is just the first of many projects for him here.
"The sense of history in Springfield, the events which have occurred here. You've got an awful lot to work with and I'm going to go so far as to say that the future of Springfield is very, very bright. I have been in volved in some very successful projects, and I think this is the most successful project I've ever been involved with," he said.
McGowan's chief architect on renovating the Heer's building is Greg Trost. He said the blueprints for the design of the reconstruction are in the building's past.
"We're going to more or less resurrect the building back to its 1915 design. So a lot of cast iron detailing, canopies, lanterns, so all that will be brought back," he said.
The lofts will vary in size and will start at 160,000 dollars.
For KSMU News, I'm Jennifer Moore.
