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MOVING PILLSBURY FORWARD
THRIVE IN SPI • SPRINGFIELD SANGAMON GROWTH ALLIANCE
UNPAVING THE WAY TO A STRONGER COMMUNITY
“ Once we tackle this, we know we can tackle any challenge that comes our way. Chris Richmond
For 72 years, the Pillsbury Mills flour plant kept Springfield working and the nation fed. But since closing in 2001, the property had become a blight on its north Springfield neighborhood, with 18 acres of land and 500,000 square feet of crumbling buildings contaminated by asbestos and lead paint. For retired fire marshal and Springfield native Chris Richmond, Pillsbury is personal. In the 20+ years since closing, the site has become a hazard, attracting crime, lowering property values, and endangering the environment, all while contributing nothing to the local economy. “It’s a major public safety issue. It really just needs taken down and redeveloped,” Richmond said. From its founding in 1929, Pillsbury Mills played a pivotal role in Springfield’s civil and social life. Today, 12,000 people live within a one-mile radius. To gauge community attitudes, Richmond and his team conducted a survey.
“We asked the neighborhood what they wanted on the site. And they said, ‘Anything.’ Anything would be better than what was there. That was hard to hear.” “So a group of us decided that hopelessness is no longer acceptable in our community,” he added. In 2020, they formed Moving Pillsbury Forward (MPF), a not-for-profit dedicated to eliminating blight at the site and empowering redevelopment of the Pillsbury neighborhood. Richmond realized early on MPF would need strong partners to put their mission in motion. Ryan McCrady, President & CEO of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance, was one of their first calls. “When you’re an economic developer, one of the most important things you bring is a network of smart people who can help with challenging tasks,” McCrady said. Their first challenge was wresting the property from a negligent owner with multiple environmental
violations, tax and legal charges. Backed by the Growth Alliance’s expertise in redeveloping contaminated sites, MPF purchased the property in March 2022. Next, the Growth Alliance helped MPF win an Environmental Protection Agency technical assistance grant for $150,000 of consulting with a brownfield redevelopment specialist. “It really helped us focus on how to get from where we were to that end goal of full redevelopment,” Richmond commented. “It just supercharged our entire program.” McCrady credits Growth Alliance leadership for the project’s initial success. “For decades, a lot of entities ran away from this project. But our board of directors showed the courage to get involved.” With additional grants of $2,652,000 from the EPA, $1 million from the federal government, and $1.5 million from the Springfield City Council, MPF’s work is well underway. Environmental clean-up of the Pillsbury site has been completed.
Richmond estimates demolition of the remaining structures will conclude in Spring 2026. After that? “The vision is having that site redeveloped in a way that grows our economy and still supports the community,” McCrady said. “We want to be really respectful to the adjacent neighborhood, because frankly, they’ve put up with a problem for a long time.” MPF and the Growth Alliance are optimistic about the future. “I think it’s going to excite everybody and really change their understanding of what Springfield can accomplish when we all get behind something together,” said McCrady. “Once we tackle this, we know we can tackle any challenge that comes our way,” added Richmond. “We’re about three-quarters of the way there, and we’re really looking forward to moving it all the way through to the finish line.”
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