The Turner Foundation has owned the property since 2007, and wanted to sell the site to help bring jobs downtown.
In the past there was talk about redeveloping the site for retail or other potential uses, like a movie theater, Cotter said. But the building was a good match for MacRay’s needs, and will result in more jobs downtown.
“We’ve been holding out on selling that building for those kinds of purposes and finally decided the future is now,” Cotter said. “We have a company that wants to come downtown and we wanted to facilitate that.”
The move will roughly triple the space available for employees, including offices and a showroom, said Brian Roberts, the company’s owner.
“That showroom space is going to help us tremendously out there,” Roberts said.
MacRay is currently located at 128 Eagle City Rd. The company offers services including clothing, promotional products, laser engraving, and signs for commercial and architectural projects.
The company only had about four employees initially, but has since grown to around 10, Roberts said. More jobs are possible in the future once the company settles into the new space, he said.
The move will also add momentum to recent efforts to attract business to downtown Springfield, Cotter said. Bada Bing Pizzeria also hosted a soft opening downtown this week, he said.
“That’s two entities that have decided to come downtown and risk their capital, and that’s a growing trend,” Cotter said. “Downtown development is like a locomotive. It starts out slow but once it builds momentum it gets quicker and it’s hard to stop eventually.”
The downtown building was previously a Ripley Buick dealership and was purchased by the Lindeman family in 2004, when it became a business equipment company. The agreement will ideally encourage other businesses to take a closer look at downtown, he said.
“We’d like it to be faster, but we like what we’re seeing,” Cotter said of downtown development.
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