Kudos to Alderman Joe McMenamin and architect Larry Quenette for having a vision for the previous Esquire Theater property at S Grand and MacArthur. The MacArthur Master Plan calls for mixed use development for this key gateway / crossroads property in Springfield, and while it’s tempting to jump at any chance for redevelopment, a strip mall just isn’t it.
Naysayers will no doubt have a field day pushing their negative perspective. We need only point to the new Hy-Vee as an example of what can happen when we ignore those who say “it can’t be done!” How many years did we hear that the site was too small for a grocery store? And now, thanks to people with vision for the future and the will to work hard to make it happen, we have a quality grocery in the heart of MacArthur.
As Quenette is quoted in the SJ-R, “Springfield has settled for ordinary over and over and over, and it’s time somebody changed that.”
We can’t agree more.