John Hawley
Dec 11, 2025
SPAR’s $1.5 million plan to rehabilitate Springfield’s historic Drew Residence is likely only an initial phase, as comparable projects—such as Avant Construction’s Juliette Balcony rehab, which required $2.56 million in DIA incentives and a total $5.8 million budget—show far higher real-world costs for similar historic structures. Given the Drew Residence’s extensive deterioration and SPAR’s partnership with the Cottrills, significantly larger funding phases and higher rehabilitation costs are expected as the project progresses.
A long-neglected gateway property in Historic Springfield is slated for redevelopment after Springfield Preservation and Revitalization (SPAR) acquired the 116-year-old Drew Residence at 245 W. Third St. with plans to convert it into a community gathering space and small-business incubator.
SPAR has launched what it describes as a $1.5 million rehabilitation effort, funded through grants, donations, and public support. But given the building’s severe deterioration, years of deferred maintenance, and structural uncertainty—and considering SPAR’s close working relationship with Avant Construction principals Alan and Ellen Cottrill—the $1.5 million figure increasingly appears less like a full project estimate and more like the opening phase of a broader marketing and fundraising campaign.
Avant Construction, listed as a partner on the Drew Residence project, has collaborated with SPAR across multiple efforts in Springfield. Their expertise in historic rehabilitation is substantial—but their own recent projects illustrate how dramatically true rehabilitation costs escalate once deeper architectural, structural, and systems evaluations occur.
The Juliette Balcony redevelopment, led by the Cottrills downtown, is a telling benchmark. Despite being smaller than the Drew Residence, the project required:
A $2.56 million DIA incentive package, including
$1,283,000 in Historic Preservation forgivable loans
$765,000 in Code Compliance forgivable loans
$512,000 in deferred principal support
A total redevelopment cost of roughly $5.8 million, with less than $1 million in private equity.
If a project with a smaller footprint and fewer visible deterioration issues required nearly $6 million, it is reasonable to interpret SPAR’s $1.5 million figure as the first milestone in a multi-phase fundraising narrative, rather than the full scope of anticipated costs.
The Drew Residence—transferred to SPAR for $0 despite selling for $170,000 in 2018—comes with a long record of code violations, structural decline, water intrusion, and outstanding tax obligations. Historic properties in this condition often conceal major structural liabilities, meaning that a true cost assessment rarely emerges until demolition, probing, and engineering phases are underway.
Given that pattern, and given Avant Construction’s track record of major DIA-supported restorations, it is more plausible that SPAR’s announcement represents:
Phase 1: Public visibility, donor mobilization, and initial fundraising with Phase 2 and Phase 3: More comprehensive engineering assessments, expanded scopes of work, and significantly higher cost projections—potentially accompanied by applications for DIA historic preservation incentives.
In this framing, the $1.5 million number is not necessarily inaccurate—it may simply reflect the starting point of a long fundraising arc, with higher true costs (and possible public subsidies) disclosed as the project advances and as SPAR releases subsequent campaign phases.
Until SPAR publishes a detailed cost breakdown or engineering assessment, the Drew Residence should be viewed as a likely multi-stage, multi-million-dollar rehabilitation, whose full financial picture has yet to be revealed—but is almost certainly far more extensive than the initial $1.5 million headline.
