Council approves special permit to convert downtown historic buildings into about 111 apartments

The Springfield City Council on Monday approved a special permit to convert a cluster of historic downtown buildings at Main, State and Stockbridge streets into a mixed-use residential project that developers said will total about 111 apartments and roughly 150,000 square feet of space.

The permit, granted during the council’s Oct. 20 meeting at Springfield City Hall, clears the way for McCaffrey Interests to adaptively reuse the Clock Tower Building, the Colonial Building and adjacent Stockbridge properties into mostly market-rate apartments with retail on the ground floor. The project is seeking historic tax credits, the applicant said.

The project matters because it targets a large, prominent downtown block and aims to reactivate street-level retail, provide compact apartments aimed at young professionals and repair badly deteriorated building fabric, councilors and the developer said.

Carol Dooney, identified as head of development construction for McCaffrey Interests, told the council the work will preserve the historic character fronting Main and State streets while introducing “an entry feature” and an addition to the rear of the Colonial Building to enliven Stockbridge Street. “We are taking a large consideration of the music school,” Dooney said, referring to the Community Music School; she said McCaffrey has already met with the school and will coordinate parking and drop-off logistics during and after construction.

Julian Looney, an architect presenting remotely, said the design now envisions about 111 apartments in roughly 150,000 square feet on a roughly 32,000-square-foot site, with about 40 units in the Clock Tower Building and about 70 in the Colonial Building. He said the team expects to submit construction drawings to the city by the end of the year and to begin construction in spring next year, with a construction schedule of roughly 13–15 months once work starts.

Dooney and Looney said the project is sized for market-rate units, though they emphasized a unit mix with studios and one-bedroom units intended to be attainable for young professionals and other local renters. “We did a market study…that unit type, which is relatively affordable, is a unit type that we want to see often in this project,” Looney said.

The developer said retail bays on the ground floor will be offered to small, independent food-and-beverage and “mom-and-pop” retailers. Pre-construction work has included remediation and masonry stabilization; the project team said the historic Clock Tower was made operational Friday evening as part of early restoration work.

Parking for the development will use a separate, city-led garage on Willow Street being advanced by the Springfield Redevelopment Authority and the Springfield Parking Authority. City and developer representatives said that garage is a separate project with a preliminary schematic budget of about $24 million and an anticipated opening in 2027.

McCaffrey said peak construction employment on the site is expected to be roughly 310–325 workers, and that the company expects to engage local subcontractors.

Councilors asked about protections for the Community Music School, the project’s affordable-unit mix, historic preservation, and coordination with the city’s planned garage. After questions and a period for public comment (no opponents attended in person), the council voted to approve the special permit. The council’s findings cited the site as appropriate for the proposed use and concluded the project would not adversely affect the neighborhood.

The decision is subject to the city’s 20-day appeal period; the applicant may pick up the original decision from the city clerk after that time.