Developers win key state funding for downtown Springfield project

State tax credits will help toward $32M renovation of Edward Wren into apartments, retail.

Credit: Bill Lackey

Credit: Bill Lackey

A multi-million dollar downtown Springfield project that would renovate a historic building into retail space on the first floor and dozens of apartments above scored a significant victory when the state reconsidered and approved nearly $4.5 million in funding.

The project, now estimated near $32 million, is billed as the Wren Lofts on the site of the former Wren Department Store at the intersection of High and Limestone streets.

When the state in December announced Round 29 funding awards, which granted more than $64 million worth of historic preservation tax incentives to benefit about 54 projects, the Wren Lofts did not get approval.

But the state this week said it evaluated its scoring procedures based on language in a Senate Bill that state legislators passed last year and determined that eight additional projects should have won awards.

That led to the Ohio Department of Development this week announcing an additional $17.5 million in state historic preservation tax credits to help rehabilitate eight historic properties across the state.

The second largest additional award is going to the long-vacant Edward Wren Co. Building, located at 31 E. High St. in Springfield. The building also is known as the McAdams Building.

The developer proposes spending about $31.7 million to turn the former department store and bank building into 89 apartments above restaurant or retail space.

The upper floors of the five-story building will turned into apartments, while the ground floor will be converted into new restaurant space, says a historic tax credit application. A two-level parking garage also will be added that extends down into the basement of the existing building.

In Dayton, the main developer of the Fire Blocks District has been awarded $725,000 in state funding to help rehab a vacant 10-story apartment building in the Grafton Hill neighborhood. Windsor Companies, which has revitalized multiple commercial buildings in downtown Dayton, plans to invest about $7.4 million into the Commodore Apartments at 522 W. Grand Ave.

The Dayton project will create new high-end, market-rate apartments, says an Ohio historic preservation tax application.

Credit: Bill Lackey

Credit: Bill Lackey

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