Downtown Springfield building closed under emergency order

“WARNING. This property contains dangerous and unsanitary conditions and has been declared unsafe for human occupation because it does not have operable sanitary facilities as ordered by the health commissioner of the Clark County Combined Health District,” the notice reads.

It also noted the building would remain closed until Charles Patterson, health commissioner, gives permission to reopen.

Patterson said, “The simple fact is: no running water or working fire suppression system, then the Codified Ordinances say no occupancy.”

The building, which was constructed in 1906, is owned by 4 West LLC, and Robert Hull is listed as the officer.

Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, he said, “We are actually going to redevelop it.”

He said valves will be replaced and the water will be restored, and that would allow the building to reopen.

“So our goal is kind of like to make it into a live-work place,” Hull said. “I don’t want to divulge too much now.”

Similar buildings have retail or restaurant space in lower floors with residential living on upper floors.

Mumma Realty and Auctioneers, a longtime Springfield business, had office space in the Hull Plaza, as did the Turner Foundation.

Both have found new office space downtown nearby, though John Landess, executive director of the Turner Foundation, said the space the foundation is using in the Bushnell Building is temporary as it seeks a permanent home.

Landess said the Turner Foundation had been a tenant in the Hull Plaza for 22 years, “and we weren’t planning on leaving.”

During the Christmas holiday weekend, pipes ruptured and water from the sixth floor flowed down on every floor below it, Landess said.

“It was just a big sheet of ice,” he said.

The foundation’s eighth-floor offices gave Landess hope.

“We thought we had escaped major disaster,” he said.

However, water from a pipe on the ninth floor had come onto the eighth floor, causing extensive damage.

“At that point, we had no water in the building, no heat in the building, and the elevator did not work,” Landess said.

He said they managed to pack things needed for the Turner Foundation’s day-to-day operations, but other property remains locked in the building, including furniture and archives.

Landess said of Hull Plaza, one of the taller downtown buildings: “The views are pretty unique in this community.”

He hoped for a resolution of the problems and success for the building. The Turner Foundation’s mission includes historic preservation, community beautification and revitalization efforts.

In 2017, city of Springfield officials ordered repairs at the Hull Plaza, then did the repair work when the owner did not do it in a timely fashion, the city said.

That included closing the sidewalks on parts of Main and Fisher streets because of safety concerns about the facade of Hull Plaza after a large section fell from it. The city declared it a public nuisance at the time.

When Hull bought the building in 2015, he agreed to pay a one-year special assessment note for about $230,000 from the city of Springfield for sidewalk, curb and gutter repair at the property in 2014 from the previous owner.

The 72,000-square-foot-building sold for $250,000 in 2015. Hull then said he renamed it in honor of his uncle, former Springfield attorney Anson E. Hull, who once had an office inside the building.