Pokin Around: Large apartment complex on East St. Louis Street is 'moving right along'

I typically drive to work along East Saint Louis Street and just about every morning I glance to my right and see a huge construction site opposite the Discovery Center and say to myself — Steve, you should know what's being built here. But you don't. 

So I found out.

How? 

By reading my own newspaper.

Colleague Gregory Holman provided a detailed overview of the project in a September 2019 story.

The online headline was "Downtown Springfield to get new $50 million apartment complex."

The Los Angeles-based developer is College Town International LLC.  

In addition to reading Holman's story, last week I spoke to Rob Haik, principal architect for H Design Group in Springfield, which is working with Kansas City-based Hollis + Miller Architects. The general contractor is Crossland Construction, which has a Springfield office.

The project should be finished next summer, he tells me, in time for the August start of the fall semester at Missouri State University.

The target audience includes not only college students, but young professionals, recent graduates and singles who want to live in downtown Springfield, Haik says.

He rattled off a list of amenities and I had to stop him, so he could back up and repeat something I thought he might have said.

"The units will have beds, that convert to sofas, that convert to desks."

Yes, he says — that's what he said.

I tell him I've never heard of that.

Neither had he, until this project.

"I'm learning a lot," he says.

Other amenities include an indoor basketball court, an outdoor pool, an outdoor pickleball court, a workout/fitness/yoga room and two outdoor courtyards.

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One courtyard (with the pool and pickleball court) will focus on activities. The other will highlight study areas that will include, for example, fire pits. 

In addition, there will be an area for pets.

The building will be five stories with 194 units.

The 225,000-square-foot complex is College Town International's first venture in Missouri. It will include studio, 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-bedroom apartments. Tenants will have the option of renting by the bedroom.

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It will offer residents — some 525 people — a private bathroom for each bedroom, lounge areas, a community kitchen, a possible coffee shop on the first floor and an underground parking structure with 175 spaces.

The 1.8-acre site was formerly occupied by the dilapidated Arbor Hotel, demolished in 2007.

A June 16, 2007, story in the News-Leader states the city demanded that hotel owner Becky Spence make numerous repairs and clean up the property or tear it down. 

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It was torn down.

At the time, the Arbor Hotel had 59 living units but fewer than 30 occupants. There was a concern that the occupants would become homeless once it was razed.

These are the views of News-Leader columnist Steve Pokin, who has been at the paper 8½ years, and over his career has covered everything from courts and cops to features and fitness. He can be reached at 417-836-1253, spokin@gannett.com, on Twitter @stevepokinNL or by mail at 651 Boonville, Springfield, MO 65806.