Springfield’s South End bore the brunt of much of the tornado damage inflicted on the city last June. But while many of the area’s commercial properties were damaged or destroyed, the storm really didn’t affect the city’s overall commercial real estate market, according to local market experts.

The South End is a well-integrated neighborhood, with mostly three- to five-story buildings housing ground-floor retail beneath a few floors of residences or offices, said John Dill, president of Springfield-based Colebrook Realty Services.

And while those ingredients combine to create a thriving urban neighborhood, the number of small office users displaced by the storm wasn’t substantial enough to move the larger market.

Even so, the relocations did provide some temporary backfill for downtown office properties, including 1350 Main St. and One Financial Plaza. But most of those tenants have since moved into other, less prominent addresses.

“Some of the vacancy was backfilled at the towers for a short period of time, but the damage to offices wasn’t nearly as extensive as the damage to the residential areas,” said Mitch Bolotin, vice president for Colebrook. “The South End has already started to come back strongly.”

In the city’s central business district, there has been “marginal” improvement in the Class A office market over the last year or so, Dill said – but no real dynamic shifts – but he wouldn’t attribute that to tornado relocations.

There has been some minor movement of users into the Class B market from the Class A market because of price compression, but that hasn’t really effected the vacancy rate for the city, which sits between 13 percent and 14 percent.

Looking To The Future

While the office market itself was not heavily affected by the tornadoes, several commercial properties were completely destroyed or needed to be razed because they were public health hazards. For example, the entire block of buildings on Main Street between Union Street and Hubbard Avenue was razed after the storm reduced it to rubble. It is still unclear when anything will be built there and at other sites, said Kevin Sweeney, executive director of Develop Springfield, a nonprofit aimed at economic development.

But plans are in the works for a new South End Community Center, formerly housed at 29 Howard St., a large portion of which was ruined by the tornado. The front part, a historic building that formerly housed the Springfield State Armory and is now known simply as the castle, still stands. But despite its name and fortress-like construction, the property also incurred substantial damage and there is concern it may face eventual demolition.

The community center is currently housed in a trailer on Morris Street, across from a swath of green space between Morris and Central streets where a sign reads “future home of South End Community Center.”

While there are no definite designs or construction timelines, there is a “high probability” that green space is where the center will eventually call home, Sweeney said.