Category: News

Friends,

Redevelopment of the Pillsbury Mills property is closer to happening thanks to many of our supporters in the community.  We are continuing efforts at working through the legal entanglements that currently impede project progress.  Funding from private sources in the community has advanced this aspect of the project significantly.  A big THANK YOU to those who have helped in this endeavor.

Moving Pillsbury Forward recently participated in a Pillsbury neighborhood clean-up day.  On April 22 we partnered with the Pillsbury Neighborhood Association and SIU School of Medicine.  Over 40 medical students participated in street and alley clean-ups throughout the neighborhood.  It was a beautiful day for this environmental health initiative.  An impressive amount of refuse was collected and disposed of in coordination with the City of Springfield Public Works Department.

We know that the abandoned Pillsbury Mills property has a negative impact on the environmental health of the surrounding neighborhood.  Vacant lots and abandoned houses in the neighborhood have a similar negative impact.  To grapple with these lots and houses, we have inventoried them and begun clean-ups.  There are 40 city owned lots in the eight square block area.  There are over 20 vacant/abandoned houses in the same area.  In the coming weeks we will be utilizing volunteers and coordinating with city officials to improve the current situation.  Please, consider how you, or your organization, can help in this worthy project.

Lastly, we have re-established a website in support of the Pillsbury Project.  The site includes: the mission and purpose for Moving Pillsbury Forward, NFP,  Pillsbury site history, contact information, and much more.

Our new web link is: pillsburyproject.org

O3 Internet Consulting did fantastic work in building the site.  Thank you! 

Chris Richmond
President, Moving Pillsbury Forward, NFP
pillsburyproject.org

Lincoln Library, the public library in Springfield, IL hosted this virtual event on February 3, 2021.

Mike Kienzler, former reporter and editor with the State Journal-Register and founding editor of SangamonLink.org, online encyclopedia of the Sangamon County Historical Society, discussed the turbulent history of the former Springfield Pillsbury Plant.

Residents, former employees of Pillsbury in Springfield, their family members and others joined in this informative and interesting discussion.

https://www.lincolnlibrary.info/events/nothing-says-lovin-somethin-oven-pillsbury-springfield

We hope to post a video of the event when Lincoln Library releases it.

Former city fire marshal Chris Richmond now leads Moving Pillsbury Forward, a group seeking to facilitate reuse of the former plant.

Built just before the Great Depression, Pillsbury Mills employed 1,500 people in its heyday. Producing flour and a variety of baking mixes, it was an anchor of the northeast Springfield neighborhood that bears its name. Following declines in the 1980s, the mill was sold to Cargill in 1991, closing permanently in 2000. Though the property was listed as an active mill, no buyers emerged, and the property was sold to a series of scrappers, ultimately resulting in a prison sentence for one of the current owners after it was revealed he hired workers to cut out asbestos-laden material for disposal in a landfill without adhering to any environmental or safety regulations.

In 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency got involved, spending millions of dollars for an emergency clean-up. It was at this time that Chris Richmond, then the fire marshal for the City of Springfield, became the city’s point person for the Pillsbury Mills cleanup, becoming familiar with the mill, as well as the people in the surrounding neighborhood.

After Richmond’s retirement from the city, he decided to get involved in the redevelopment of the dormant plant, putting together a working group known as Moving Pillsbury Forward (MPF). After holding a series of meetings with consultants as well as people from the neighborhood, the group decided the best way forward was to form a nonprofit. “What we have,” states Richmond, “is an 18-acre site that needs leveled and cleared, and we need local community and government support to get that accomplished on the front end.”

Richmond reasons that once the site is brought down to level ground, it clears the biggest hurdle that developers face in making the site worth reinvestment. Though MPF has sought ideas big and small for the site, the most likely is affordable housing, though light industrial and mixed use have also been mentioned.

Read the full story at SpringfieldBusinessJournal.com…

[Community] members formed the organization Moving Pillsbury Forward. The president of the organization, Chris Richmond, said Moving Pillsbury Forward was created with a clear goal in mind.

“We’re working toward the clearing of the property, and preparing it for re- development,” Richmond said. “This looks like rust belt America, and it needs removed from our town.”

The plant has sat vacant for more than 20 years.

“About a third of it has been demolished. All of the more expensive metals have been removed and scraped out of it,” Richmond said. “[What’s left] is about 500,000 square feet of hollowed out buildings and silos that have no function moving forward.”

In the past few years, the organization has made some headway. Moving Pillsbury Forward has officially become a nonprofit.

“There are legal entanglements on the front end of this project,” Walsh said. “Once we get beyond that, we’ve had experts on site, and they are estimating the overall project costs to clear the 18-acres would be somewhere between $8 million and $12 millions.”

Richmond said the property has deteriorated too far and is a hazard to the community.

“The U.S. EPA came in to clean up the bulk of the asbestos and other contaminants that were on site,” Richmond said. “Most of that got taken care of in 2017, but it still remains. That silver coating on the silo has low level asbestos.”

With more than 12,000 people living within one mile of the old plant, Richmond said the plant needs to be torn down.

Read the full article and watch the news clip at WANDTV.com…

A non-profit group says its goal is to acquire title to the abandoned Pillsbury Mills site… and then serve as the centralized point to line up state and federal grants in hopes of eventually demolishing the vacant structure and developing the property.

Moving Pillsbury Forward says the dilapidated factory is an eyesore that is causing property values to fall and adding to poverty and other problems in the surrounding neighborhood. Group president Chris Richmond says there are various legal entanglements to sort out rightful ownership, back taxes, and other issues that are hindering his group’s efforts.

Read the full article at WMAY.com…

Joey McLaughlin gets an update on the now not for profit organization, Moving Pillsbury Forward from organizer Chris Richmond.

Listen to it at WTAX.com…

The group that eventually hopes to see the old Pillsbury Mills plant demolished is trying to at least spruce up the area around it a bit.

The Pillsbury Mills Neighborhood Association, City of Springfield Department of Public Works, and Moving Pillsbury Forward are teaming up for a neighborhood cleanup.

Read the full story at WMAY.com…

The abandoned Pillsbury Mills plant in Springfield is due for a renovation. Community members are mobilizing to redevelop the plant nearly 20 years after it closed.

Speaking on the 21st Show, Chris Richmond, a member of the Moving Pillsbury Forward initiative, said the plant in its current condition is dangerous because it’s deteriorating and easily accessible; and the community is ready for a change.

“They want to see something else come into its place that is once again productive for their area of town and for the entire community,” Richmond said.

Richmond and his group recommend the city purchase the lot, saying projects like these have to be publicly owned at the beginning to get federal and state funding. The owner would then have to seek private partnerships to further the development process.

Read the full story at WILL.Illinois.edu…

“At this point in time, the Pillsbury facility is a blight in the community,” [Moving Pillsbury Forward Founder Chris Richmond] said.

Richmond expressed how he wants to see the buildings demolished and the area revitalized. He and members of the community group “Moving Pillsbury Forward” suggested the city should take the property from its private owners. They believe the cleanup, demolition and redevelopment is worth $12 million. One city leader described the effort as a ‘financial nightmare’.

MPF said the city could have an opportunity to apply for federal and state money if it took over the property. City leaders didn’t make a vote, but Richmond expressed confidence.

He said “if the city can spend $7 million supporting community health through the YMCA”, then $12 million is equally reasonable.

Read the full story at WANDTV.com…

Community Members joined us for a conversation about the Pillsbury Site on January 15, 2020 at Lanphier High School.

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