By Job Conger, Correspondent
Thirteen years ago, when U.S. Rep. John Shimkus sponsored the funding that led to the construction of an interchange at MacArthur Boulevard, an upstart consulting firm on Chicago’s northwest side called The Lakota Group was only three years old.
With completion of the interchange slated for later this year for a federal cost of about $7 million, area planners are lining up to make the most of it, starting with a federally funded study intended to revitalize the once-thriving and soon-to-be expanded “corridor.”
Shimkus says despite austere times, “(The U.S. Department of) Housing and Urban Development believes that with a good plan, the benefits will exceed the ($79,000) investment we’re going to put in.”
Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Norm Sims recalls, “Last April when a bunch of us met in the church (Laurel United Methodist at Walnut at South Grand), we set some pretty aggressive goals. This past August we let an RFP (request for proposal) to bring in expertise to help us look at what can be done to make it a central component of this city. At the time, we thought we’d get in three to five proposals in for this activity. After that, at a pre-proposal meeting for vendors and there were about 12, so we anticipated would have six or seven proposals submitted. We had 20 proposals submitted from all over the eastern United States. Because they were so good, we ended up interviewing seven in three-hour interviews over three days.” The committee included Springfield economic development director Mike Farmer and members of the MacArthur Boulevard Business Association.
“After the presentation from the Lakota Group, we decided that if anyone else were to be selected for the task, they would really have to hit it out of the ball park to beat them,” Sims said. “We’re going to be living with these guys for about nine months.”
Nick Kalogeresis, AICP, vice president of the winning firm says, “’Lakota’ comes from the Sioux word meaning ‘allies.’ We want to be allies with members of this community not only in the planning but in the implementation. We’re going to be leaving in eight months and the rest (the Springfield community) will carry the plan forward.”
The Lakota Group was founded in 1993 and is based in Chicago. The group will focus on planning, urban design, landscape architecture, historic preservation and community relations. Assisting are Gewalt Hamilton Associates of Chicago, specializing in transportation planning, parking and traffic engineering, and The CLUE Group (Community Land Use Economic Group) of Arlington, Va., specializing in economic analysis, business development and planning, policy and evaluation services.
The organization has completed work for western access to O’Hare Airport, Chicago Fire Soccer Village, Mississippi River Corridor and Crown Point, Ind. Their Website includes directions for visiting their offices by tricycle as well as commuter rail, bus and rapid transit. Kalogeresis has served as Suburban Coordinator for the Illinois Main Street program and is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Kalogeresis and a few associates informally toured the corridor last September. With the grant now in hand, their first step will be a “project start meeting” in early February with the steering committee and the business association. More associates from Chicago will take an extensive tour and do some stakeholder group interviews. ”We’ll have a community workshop after that,” he says. The process will consist of three phases involving analysis of resources at hand, considering short and long-term “visions” for future use and producing an initial plan for urban design, land use and business development, assessment of the area market and implementation. Citizen meetings will be held during the three segments of their involvement.
“We have not determined the final study area,” he said. The initial thinking is that it will extend from South Grand to the I-72/MacArthur interchange. “One of the goals is to understand the interchange will have,” he says.”We will probably go two or three blocks east and west.” When asked if there will be more muscle in the report, compared with the suggestions-only delivered by the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team a few years ago, Kalogeresis says, “It will be a lot different from R/UDAT. We’re going to produce a plan that will be adopted as policy. We’re looking short and long-term.”
Macarthur’s existing business community is ready and waiting. At La Bamba, 1731 S. MacArthur, manager Maria Aguas observed, “There’s not much going on in this area.” Aguas has managed the restaurant for the past three years. “Business is a roller coaster, up and down,” she says. “When they open the highway we hope to do better.” Aguas feels the improved area ambiance would help draw people to stop more frequently instead of passing by. “If they could remodel the outside of the streets a little more, improve the sidewalks, and get more kinds of businesses, that would help.”
Susan DeFreitas arrived at 2025 S. MacArthur a week before Christmas, upgraded most of the almost 6,000 square foot interior and opened Home Décor and More soon after. She and business partner Gene Blaum have signed a lease with an option to buy. “We have everything from antiques to things for college kids,” she says. The professional décor “organizer” had acquired so many household items in the course of her full-time enterprise that she stored it in a warehouse until two years ago when she began looking for retail space.“I am amazed by the traffic, so much so that I’m planning to expand to another location further south on MacArthur. Customers have told me they are glad to have this store where it is.”
Penny Lane opened in 1971 on Ash Street and moved to its current location, 2901 S. Macarthur, in 1984. The gift shop and “rock emporium” has expanded twice. The 15 employees look forward to the opening of the interchange. Sustainable design consultant and spokesman Scott Fitzmire believes “consistency of architectural code, design and green sustainability should be considered as well as cost when buildings are updated.”
Winchester Galleries, founded in 1947 downtown, has been at its current address at 1800 S. MacArthur since the neighborhood location of several years proved untenable due to security concerns several years ago. Robert Hansen, who shares ownership with Donna Moler, anticipates a mixed blessing with the opening of the I-72 interchange. “I don’t know whether it will give us more exposure because there are more cars running by or they won’t see us with greater numbers going by. The most obvious liability to MacArthur businesses is the vacated K-Mart. “That’s a centerpoint of trouble for the business element here,” Hansen says. “Other places are empty, but the building sticks out like a sore thumb.” Hansen wants to see more effort to recruit a large supermarket to MacArthur and applauds the recent closing of a payday loan business a few blocks south.
With the I-72 interchange slated to open in the near future, the task of producing a report for what may be a highly kinetic corridor – as investors begin to pave the perimeters of the MacArthur extension -- is likely to present a greater challenge than anticipated. The Lakota Group’s Nick Kalogeresis suggested that opening is one factor contributing to initial uncertainty regarding the bronco about to leave the starting gate in early February.
Job Conger is a freelance writer from Springfield.
