Let's Give Metallic Casket Site A Chance

During a recent trip to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., I was impressed with what the city of Durham had done in bringing back to life an area that was made up of abandoned tobacco warehouses. They didn’t tear the buildings down. They refurbished them and created new uses for the buildings.
We have a chance to do the same with the old Metallic Casket Company building downtown. It’s one of two sites being considered for the National Trail Parks and Recreation District’s new ice arena.
The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, at its September meeting, voted unanimously in favor of the Metallic Casket site. Just as the location of the Springfield Regional Medical Center was important to revitalizing downtown, putting the ice arena in a visible and prominent downtown location would be another key ingredient. We think it also would be the best location to attract people to the ice arena.
Architectural renderings of what the Metallic Casket building would look like create a “wow” reaction. It’s doubtful a similar reaction would come from tearing down Memorial Hall and erecting a nondescript structure. Plus, the Memorial Hall site has drawn interest from other entities because it’s in the hospital zone.
When looking at this project and others, let’s not as a community start out with “no” as the response and look for ways to validate that answer. Let’s say “yes” and see if it’s feasible. Much study has shown this is workable. We simply can’t let this opportunity slip by.