Babcock Building renovations at BullStreet roll on, less than a year after major fire
Seven months ago, a fire ravaged a portion of the massive, historic Babcock Building in the BullStreet District, with flames pouring out of the top of the building and destroying its iconic cupola.
When Hugh Shytle, president of Virginia’s Clachan Properties, learned of the fire, he admitted there was immediate angst. The company is in midst of a $55 million renovation of Babcock that will turn the former State Mental Hospital facility into 208 apartments.
“My heart skipped a beat when we got news of the fire,” Shytle told The State on Friday.
But the distress was only momentary. Renovation work on the massive Babcock complex — it’s more than 254,000-square-feet and composed of 12 connected buildings — forged ahead, and was in full swing on Friday when reporters toured the inside of the structure that has long been on the National Register of Historic Places.
While there is still much work to be done to convert all of Babcock into apartments — Mayor Steve Benjamin said the developers are six months into a 30-month construction process — the first phase is set to be completed by the end of this year and tenants could move in by early 2022.
“We were heartbroken last September when flames engulfed the Babcock Building,” Benjamin said Friday, as the sounds of work trucks and nail guns rattled in the near distance. “We watched in horror as the cupola collapsed into the building. I know that people across the community wondered ... if this viable, 21st century vision was in doubt. I think it is clear that it has never been doubt. ... Clachan Properties never wavered in their commitment to making this project happen.”
The building’s cupola will be replaced.
The Babcock Building is just a piece — though a significant one — of the city and master developer Hughes Development’s aggressive plan to redevelop the 181-acre former mental hospital campus. The pace of the project has been methodical in the last five years, but has gained momentum. There is an REI outdoor store on the property now, as well as a Starbucks.
There are tenants in the Merrill Gardens senior living facility at the site, and in the townhomes behind the Babcock Building. Dirt is moving to make way for the new WestLawn office building, and the Columbia Fireflies, tenants of the city’s $37 million Segra Park baseball stadium, just inked a new 10-year deal to be an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. And the city will cut the ribbon on a public park there this year, which will be named for late architect and community leader Page Ellington.
In all, the city has committed about $100 million in public money for the site.
City Manager Teresa Wilson was among those who walked through the massive Babcock Building on Friday, examining both the construction progress in the first phase — which is transforming a former dining hall on the south end of the property into the first grouping of apartments — and the parts of the building that are still in rough shape.
“I think they are making terrific progress, under the circumstances of not only the fire, but the fact we’ve been in the midst of a pandemic,” Wilson told The State. “We are finding that a lot of the contractors are ready and eager to keep moving forward and get work. We know that this community is yearning to see progress out here (at BullStreet). To me, this is a testament that it will happen.”
Clachan Properties has done a number of historic renovations across the country through the years, sometimes turning old mills into residences. But Shytle admits that the gargantuan Babcock Building, once the unquestioned centerpiece of the State Mental Hospital campus, is a unique opportunity.
“Our architect, Walter (Parks), says that this is the most magnificent building he’s ever worked on,” Shytle said. “It’s not just the bones of the building, but its importance to the community.”
