Michael Haskins, Executive Director, SPAR Council

Michael Haskins, executive director of Springfield Preservation and Revitalization (SPAR) Council, spoke with Invest: about some key highlights during his time in his position, the ways SPAR interacts with homeowners, business owners, and developers in the historic neighborhood, and the ways SPAR analyzes data to achieve its goals.

What have been the key highlights or milestones since you took over as executive director of the Springfield Preservation and Revitalization (SPAR) Council? 

Last year marked our 50th anniversary, and we celebrated in a couple of different ways. We started an endowment with The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida. The endowment will provide a source of sustainable revenue for SPAR to continue into the next 50 years. We also hosted our inaugural Bold City Ball event in partnership with several other organizations in Jacksonville. It’s the first event of its kind in Jacksonville, and is focused on the importance and value of historic preservation as part of our city’s revitalization. Internally, we’ve grown our budget significantly and added four new staff members. We also started the Springfield Cleanup Corps, which provides beautification services in the Springfield neighborhood.

What is your view of the growth that has taken place in Springfield in the last decade? What do you see as the potential for growth in the next several years?

Springfield is a locally and nationally designated historic district in the city of Jacksonville. As a result of those designations, it requires additional permitting to make changes to exteriors of currently existing structures, as well as some additional review for new development. SPAR works with homeowners, property owners, and developers to ensure that they’re able to meet those requirements, while also encouraging new developments and revitalization of the neighborhood. In the past decade we’ve seen significant interest in development along our commercial corridors. We’ve worked closely with several developers to work on projects they’d like to see come to fruition in the neighborhood. That type of growth and development brings in new residents, and helps generate revenue for the businesses in the neighborhood. We’re excited to see other people in the city of Jacksonville, who may not have heard of Springfield, come to discover it as a gem within our city. 

What programs and events are being implemented to drive preservation, revitalization, and balanced growth in Springfield?

Our mission is in three parts. First is preservation, which is working with the city of Jacksonville and property owners to ensure that buildings meet the historic guidelines, and that we preserve the historic character of the neighborhood. We do that through a combination of committees and volunteers that review proposed changes and work with stakeholders to meet the guidelines. The second part of the mission is revitalization by encouraging business and residential development along our main corridors. We run the business association in Springfield and the Springfield Cleanup Corps, which works on landscaping, blight reduction, and public art installations in the commercial corridors. The third part of our mission is our events and programming. We host over 20 events each year, the majority of which are free and open to the public. These events showcase the neighborhood and feature a significant architectural element, such as the front porches, the parks, and the commercial corridors in the neighborhood. We hope these events show people that Springfield is a wonderful place to live, work, and play, and that they’ll be encouraged to come back to visit in the future.

What is the status of the Emerald Trail Project, and how do you expect this initiative to impact the community?

The Emerald Trail is a critical piece of green infrastructure in the city of Jacksonville. The initial idea for the Emerald Trail actually started through a collaboration between the Mayor’s Office and SPAR, and we realized the idea needed a separate nonprofit that could work citywide. Groundwork Jacksonville is the nonprofit that was started after those planning meetings. It’s going to result in park improvements, improvements to Hogan’s Creek, the waterways and watershed adjacent to Hogan’s Creek, and it’s going to provide connectivity between Springfield and downtown Jacksonville.

How do you track the progress and impact of the different projects that you carry out to revitalize Springfield?

We look at a variety of different data points. We can look at the number of structures that have been invested in, investment dollars over time, and real estate numbers. We can look at the number of businesses that are opening and being sustained, and the number of jobs that those businesses are creating. We can look at attendance at our events, and we survey our event guests and ask them about their experience in Springfield. We use this data to determine if our work is having an impact, and to make sure it’s having the impact we are aiming for. Since 2014, we’ve seen significant positive trends in all of those areas. 2014 was the first year of Jacksonville PorchFest, which is our largest and highest-profile event. The work we’ve been doing the past 10 years has been aligned with and correlated with a positive trajectory in the data. 

What are the main industries or sectors of the economy that are driving growth?

Many of the 250 businesses in Springfield are home businesses. For example, my wife is an education consultant based in Springfield, but her clients are based in other parts of the country. Most of the businesses that are storefronts in Springfield are food, beverage, and retail. There are also many services, such as realtors and marketing firms, and we have a number of businesses related to the arts in Springfield.

How do you work with city officials and lawmakers to achieve the goal SPAR has set out to accomplish?

We maintain relations with a variety of different departments in the city of Jacksonville, as well as with local representatives and elected officials. If there’s a pothole, sidewalk damage, or a fallen tree branch, we can elevate those concerns. We also work with them on long-term planning. We’re working with developers and the city on a number of projects around the neighborhood that are going to be high-impact and high-profile projects such as the Main Street resurfacing project currently underway. A core component of our mission is to ensure that at every step in the planning and implementation process, the residents and businesses of Springfield have an opportunity to give their input. We believe that when those voices are heard, it creates a better product for everybody.

What effects have your volunteering and donation initiatives had on the community?

Until about 10 years ago, SPAR had no paid staff. We were an entirely volunteer-run organization. Even now, we only have two program staff and our Springfield Cleanup Core staff, so we use volunteers to offset what we don’t have in staff. Our volunteers are critical to all parts of our mission. We have approximately 200 volunteers a year. They help run Jacksonville PorchFest, help decorate Main Street for the holidays, and provide expertise and guidance on the architecture of the neighborhood. We have volunteer architects who help homeowners work on their houses in a historically appropriate way, in keeping with the character of the community. As a nonprofit, we rely on donations from the community and from foundations. The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, for example, is one of our largest funders. Their funding, along with donations from other foundations, are critical in ensuring that we have long-term sustainability, and to fund specific programs, particularly our arts and culture-based events and public art initiatives in Jacksonville’s Urban Core. Their support is vital to our mission and work in Springfield.