Driving south on Lone Pine Avenue, piles of dirt line the left side of the road past Sequiota park. Across from the Galloway Quarry, shiny new apartments are followed by the frames of new developments. Construction workers hammer in nails, utilize heavy equipment and follow blueprints. All of this action indicates a change; rustic and undeveloped Galloway is becoming a lively community. 

  

Township 28, Galloway Creek and Quarry Town are three large projects started by Springfield developers to create new growth in Galloway. All of these projects began development because of the work and money spent by Sam Coryell to get the land blighted and approved for a tax abatement. Coryell graduated from Glendale in 1991 and is the president of Coryell Enterprises Inc., TLC Properties and Team C Construction. He has created a lot of the apartments and housing around Springfield, including The Abbey on East Erie Street off of Battlefield Road and The Falcon on Ingram Mill Road.

  

“My big passion was to see that area redevelop, all up and down from Sequiota Park all the way down to Galloway Grill,” Coryell said. “The tax abatement is what made that possible and what really brought the attention to Galloway Village, so I’m happy to be a part of that and be the guy that got the ball rolling.”

  

Once the land was blighted, developers could purchase it with a tax cut. The purchased land qualified for a tax abatement, allowing developers to pay taxes on the quality of the original land, not the land after development. This tax abatement is valid for the first 10 years of land use. Coryell used this for the land he has developed in Galloway.

  

“For ten years, my property taxes on that site would be frozen; they wouldn’t go up, which is a big deal,” Coryell said. “Right now I pay about $8500 a year in property taxes on that site. If I didn’t have the abatement, it would be $90,000 to 100,000 a year.”

  

Of the Galloway development projects, Township 28 is the only one that is completed. Township 28 is an apartment community with many amenities, including smart home capabilities, a gym and a smoothie bar. Coryell is behind this recent development that was completed in 2016, which now has an occupancy rate of 95 percent. 

  

The inspiration for the architecture of Township 28 came from the Cosby Show. After many attempts to recreate the housing like that in the show, Coryell and his team decided the way to make the apartments different was to add color. 

  

“Since I’m a child of the 80s and 90s, I grew up watching the Cosby Show, and I liked the architecture of this row house that they lived in,” Coryell said. “Whenever I bought this ground, I thought this would be a great spot for something like that.”

  

Coryell hopes his developments leave a lasting impression on the people of Springfield. He is ready to continue building projects that have purpose, excitement and something new. Township 28 is an example of Coryell’s vision.  

  

“It was definitely lightning in a bottle,” Coryell said. “I don’t know if I’ll have it professionally again. I was meeting with my architect this morning saying we need to recapture that kind of creativity and continue to do neat stuff like that. That was a unique experience.”

  

Brent Brown, CEO of Entrust Property Solutions, LLC, used the tax abatement to start his own plans for development. Brown is working on Galloway Creek, a residential and commercial center. The project began when Brown approached the Jalili family, owners of restaurants Black Sheep, Flame and Touch. 

  

“Billy Jalili owned the land already to put a restaurant, so I actually approached him about a year ago about this idea of partnering and doing a mixed-use development where he could do his restaurant, but we could also add to it with some other commercial space and some apartments,” Brown said.

 

Galloway Creek will be a unique development for the tenants and community. The building will not have the traditional features of an apartment complex. There will be 66 apartment units above the commercial spaces.

  

“Because it is mixed-use, our commercial tenants will actually become the amenities for those that live in the apartments above, so that’s very unique not only to Galloway but to Springfield,” Brown said.

  

Brown hopes to engage the community and see Galloway revived. He has witnessed the high hopes for Galloway Creek, set to open around August. 

  

“It has been very exciting to see Galloway develop, especially for those of us who have lived in the Springfield area for so long and have seen the potential there,” Brown said. “That has helped excitement about our project.”

 

A final plan for development is Quarry Town, headed by Matt O’Reilly, CEO of Green Circle Projects, the company behind projects like Farmer’s Park and Farmer’s Market of the Ozarks. Quarry Town is going to bring use to more of the land across from the Galloway Quarry. Jessica Pearson, Marketing Director for Green Circle Projects, believes Quarry Town represents the principles the company follows. 

  

“All of our Green Circle Projects are passion projects,” Pearson said. “The Lone Pine corridor happens to be one of those that our development company identified as a great opportunity that was very much aligned with the core principles that Green Circle Projects associates with our projects, such as preserving the local vernacular, a sense of community, mobility and sustainability.”

  

The mixed-use development is planned to have many features that will be attractive to both the community and the tenants. The mixed-use portion is set to open in the fall of 2018, with 100 apartments opening in the spring of 2019. 

  

“We have plans for a restaurant and perhaps a café space,” Pearson said. “From a multi-family perspective, there will be a pool, and there will be an ashram. They are very similar to yoga studios, but they are also utilized for community gathering spaces.”

  

Green Circle Projects has many plans to make Quarry Town eco-friendly. The company aligns with ideals that reflect positive treatment of the environment. Along with a plan to recycle trees, there will be electric car charging stations and natural-surface   trails throughout the property. 

  

“Tree preservation was really important for us on this project,” Pearson said. “Any of the trees that we did remove, we are actually having milled and created into benches and furniture that will be featured throughout the site.”

  

Green Circle Projects is hopeful that Quarry Town will be a popular place to visit and will further the renovation of Galloway.

  

“I hope it’s everything we imagined it would be,” Pearson said. “We hope to attract residents, retailers and restaurants to the area and continue to be a part of the awesome redevelopment but also the rich heritage and culture that is already established along Galloway.”

  

To witness this construction, drive along South Lone Pine Avenue off of Battlefield Road and past Sequiota park. Township 28 is open for business, and the other developments are following suit. For more information on Township 28, visit https://www.township28.com/. Visit http://www.gallowaycreek.com/ and Quarry Town’s facebook page to follow the construction and openings of Galloway Creek and Quarry Town. All development is planned to be completed by Spring 2019, with many features opening beforehand.