Stories

Helping Foster ‘Comeback Neighborhoods’

Jacksonville’s Springfield neighborhood developed as the city’s first suburb largely in the wake of the Great Fire of 1901. By the late 1990s, however, the grand Queen-Anne and Prairie-style homes built there by the city’s early business leaders had grown decrepit, unsafe and largely unoccupied. 

Today the community is experiencing a remarkable renaissance, one that inspired Southern Living magazine to name Springfield one of “The South’s Best Comeback Neighborhoods.” And LISC Jacksonville has been a major part of that comeback. 

“Our project would not have happened without LISC Jacksonville,” said James Smith, one of the partners who bought and renovated a 4,000-square-foot 1930s commercial building on Main Street last year. “I never dreamt I would own a business in Springfield, much less buy a building on Main Street. But we’ve watched so many projects start here in the last few years, all of them funded or helped by LISC. That’s a pretty good sign.” 

Smith’s vision for his project was dead in the water in 2017. He didn’t qualify for an SBA loan. He didn’t have the down payment. LISC stepped in and brought the plan back to life, he said. 

LISC provided Smith technical support along with unsecured financing, and helped connect him with resources including commercial tenants for his building, said Devin Thompson, economic development officer for LISC Jacksonville. “This project touched on all the various pieces that LISC can bring to the table.” 

Smith said Thompson and others at LISC provided more than funding and advice. “We weren’t just a customer or a client to them,” he said. “They bought into our vision and became personally invested in our project.” 

Smith’s building on Main Street is surrounded by numerous new projects that have benefitted from LISC Jacksonville’s technical expertise and/or financial support. 

Crispy’s Restaurant, the Dozier Apartments, Hyperion Brewing, Social Grounds Coffee Shop, Strings Sports Brewery and other projects have sprung up in Springfield’s revived commercial corridor since LISC Jacksonville launched its EPIC Communities program there in 2012. LISC officials have worked diligently with groups like Springfield Area Merchants and Business Association and Springfield Preservation and Revitalization to improve the area’s business climate and foster the recent progress. 

With his Main Street building renovated and open, Smith is turning his attention to helping LISC and others in efforts to revive the commercial corridor and support the community. He worked with other area merchants to organize a regular night market event with food trucks, street vendors and live music. They held a St. Patrick’s Day street celebration and raised money to buy equipment for new afterschool and summer programs for neighborhood kids in the skate plaza behind Smith’s Block Skate Supply store. 

“We’re activating a space,” Smith said. “People in this community are just so hungry for this stuff. A lot of it is because of LISC.”

LISC Jacksonville helped business partners James Smith and Truitte Moreland with development of their building on Main Street in Springfield.
LISC Jacksonville helped business partners James Smith and Truitte Moreland with development of their building on Main Street in Springfield.