Betting on a building's rebirth

Longtime buddies take mid-life plunge into city's revitalization By Debbie Gardner Two guys. Met in elementary school. Buddies ever since. Best man at each other's weddings. Separated by careers. Still long-distance friends. Get together again at mid-life and decide to become business partners in a new venture. No, it's not the plot of a new movie or storyline for a sitcom though one of these guys does hail from California. It's the in-a-nutshell background of the pair who have parleyed their vision for the former Basketball Hall of Fame into a living, breathing redevelopment project set to break ground later this month. PRIME had the opportunity to spend some time with developers Peter J. Pappas of East Longmeadow and Dr. Michael Spagnoli, formerly of Wilbraham and now of California, to talk about their new venture, River's Landing a construction and renovation project that will bring a high-end fitness club, sports medicine clinic and upscale restaurant to the site of the old Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. And let me say, these were two pretty excited guys. I saw a sample of the new amber onyx mined at 11,000 feet only in Utah that they have ordered for the bar in their joint venture, the new Hollywood Barn restaurant, as well as photos of a west-coast restaurant that the pair are modeling their three-story fine-and-casual dining floorplan on. The video wall alone is going to be breathtaking. I also had a new appreciation for the view from their second-floor office windows in the old Hall after Spagnoli related an exchange between himself and Pat Edgerton, Vice President of Marketing for their development partner, L. A. Fitness Clubs. Edgerton, Spagnoli said, had stood on the green walkway behind the former Hall of Fame and remarked, "Do you know what you have here? This site is amazing." "People from outside [the area] see it," Spagnoli said of the potential for a rebirth in Springfield. And so, it seems, do these two men. Betting on a winner "Peter and I were just talking [ about the city's potential] on the way back from Boston," Spagnoli said as we looked over the architect's renderings for River's Landing. "Isn't it amazing that Springfield, [even] though it has great universities and institutions like the Springfield Armory and Hasbro/Milton Bradley, that it's the birthplace of Dr. Seuss and other famous people, is kind-of off the map." "Springfield is like a football team that s been one-and 13 for the past 20 years it's forgotten how to win," said Pappas of the doom-and-gloom attitude he said has prevailed in efforts to revitalize the city where both he and Spagnoli were born. "Everyone looks outside for help," he said, adding that so many proposed projects are contingent on securing state or federal funding. "You have to put your money where your mouth is we did," Pappas said. I had learned at a press conference announcing the project several week's earlier that Pappas and Spagnoli's River's Landing project, which they described as an integrated sports, health and entertainment complex, came off the drawing board 100 percent privately funded, with a total investment of over $14 million. Citizens Bank of Massachusetts is providing private financing for the project. During our interview, Spagnoli told me that L. A. Fitness was "blown away enough to invest $7 million of their own money" in the project. "Everyone from outside of Springfield loves the site, but no local bank would look at it [for financing]," Pappas said. Spagnoli was exacting and candid in his assessment of what it will take to turn Springfield around. "The only way you're going to change the city, is to put private money in," he said. If you build it ... Spagnoli and Pappas are proud that they were able to hammer out an agreement that got L. A. Fitness onboard with the River's Landing project. The Springfield location at the planned 60,000 square feet will be the largest health club in New England, and the club's first foray into the Northeast. L. A. Fitness' closest location is currently in New Jersey. "It's nice to get something before Boston," Pappas said. And the two men hope that landing such a plum for their hometown will kick-start investment by other businesses looking for new locations. "To attract other companies to this part of the state, you have to have amenities such as fine dining and high-end health clubs," Pappas said. As the owner of an industrial equipment import-export company who has travelled extensively, Pappas knows firsthand that these are the kinds of lifestyle options business owners and cess come to expect from their surroundings. And, as he pointed out, Springfield is in the perfect location to attract this type of investor, and their job-producing businesses. "We're in the rocking chair of Western Mass, this is a great place to live," Pappas said, referring to the affordable housing, cost of living and proximity to two-and-four-year colleges that can gear up to train workforce to fit any need. "And, this is a spot that's just 38 minutes from an international airport," he added. It's worth the risk Still, PRIME had to ask these men both of whom are very successful in their own businesses why they wanted to take on this project. And Pappas admitted that there have been moments in the two years since he called Spagnoli in California to share his vision for the old Hall of Fame when both men took a second and third hard look at what they were trying to accomplish. "In the early parts of strategizing we said, 'we don't need to do this'," Pappas said. Convincing L. A. Fitness to consider the site wasn't easy at first, when they were just looking at the demographics. "The city [average income] is low, but the surrounding areas have a median income of $52,000. The national average is $42,000," Pappas said. But Spagnoli's connection to the club his business, Trillium Sports Medicine, has clinics in several club locations in California plus the help of the marketing team at the new Hall of Fame finally brought this important partner into the project. That commitment, Spagnoli's willingness to fly cross country every month for the past two years to work the plan and the men's dogged pursuit of private investors to fund the project has finally come to fruition. Being from here, we love our roots," Spagnoli said. "It just got old hearing Springfield pounded." "It's a risk, but life is a risk," Pappas said. "We feel pretty good about it."