Kingdom Coffee will add a third location this fall or winter in Boyd Lofts at 1409 N. Washington, according to Kingdom Coffee owner Jason Strother. The new location will operate in the former elementary school’s library and will serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert items in addition to coffee. Kingdom Coffee also has a location downtown at 211 S. Market Ave. and in Galloway Village at 2896 S. Lone Pine Ave. near Lone Pine and Battlefield Road.
In the past, Kingdom Coffee has utilized the City of Springfield’s Commercial Loan Program to add the second location and purchase new equipment, such as a coffee roaster, Strother said. The financing for the new Boyd Lofts location was also made possible with a City loan.
“The application process is really easy. We were excited to work with the City again when we decided to open this third location,” he added. “I think the City is eager to see businesses get off the ground and grow.”
Boyd Lofts is a redevelopment project featuring 17 loft style apartments with around 3,000 square feet of amenity-based commercial space, said developer Matt Blevins.
The 26,000-square-foot building has been vacant since August 2021 when the school relocated to a newly constructed building at 833 E. Division. The former Boyd building was declared as surplus property by the school board in December 2021 and sold to Boyd School Redevelopment Corporation in November 2022 for $200,000. City Council approved the redevelopment plan for the property in June 2023.
The first Boyd Elementary was a renovated house opened in 1908 and named in honor of Mary Sophia Boyd, who taught for 41 years in Springfield. After that house burned, in 1911 a multi-story brick structure became Boyd elementary for the next 110 years. Additions to the building were built in the late 1980s and early 2000s. The redevelopment will maintain the historic character of the building and does not involve exterior changes, Blevins said.
“I think that this type of mixed-use development, particularly when it involves adaptive reuse of an existing historic building is what we want in our community,” said Mayor Pro Tem and Zone 4 Councilman Matthew Simpson at the April 17, 2023 City Council meeting. “It meets the goals of Forward SGF, promotes walkability, helps contribute to filling the housing shortage that we have in our community, promotes economic vitality and I think adaptive use projects like this can strengthen neighborhoods.”