Buzz Bomb Brewing Co is just a few folks who came together to start a brewery and we chose to buy a building in downtown Springfield because we saw the potential and thought that we could be – wanted to be – a part of revitalizing that downtown.

We immediately started reaching out to the other breweries in town because we wanted to foster a brew community like you see in other cities with thriving brewery scenes. We immediately started reaching out to our neighbors downtown too because we wanted a community there as well. One business can only do so much no matter how great it is but one business that’s part of a vibrant downtown can be oh so much more successful. The rising tide lifts all boats.

When we started, and to this day, we hear a lot about how “there’s nothing to do in downtown” or even “nothing to do in Springfield”  or “people from the west side won’t come downtown” and of course “there’s no parking in downtown”. We are doing our best to change those things because we want to succeed and a successful downtown is the best way to do that. 

We found like minded friends on our block and the #AdamsFamily was born (credit to Mark from Cafe Moxo for coining that!), we started working together and we started succeeding together.

One of our first successes was approaching US Bank about getting an official agreement to use their parking lot after hours and on weekends. Could Buzz Bomb have just asked for ourselves? Sure. Would they have said yes? Maybe, US Bank is invested in the success of downtown too. Isn’t it better though to have parking for all of us though so that maybe you will come down, stay a while, have some food, visit the shops, and of course relax with a cold beer? So that’s what we did and now we have parking for all #AdamsFamily businesses. The rising tide lifts all boats.

Our efforts haven’t been limited to our block, once that parking agreement was hammered out we included DSI with the idea that it could be a model for other areas downtown and the many other lots that are not used at night and on weekends. 

The best way to combat “there’s nothing to do” or “people won’t come” is to give them something to do and give them a reason to come. We started with a few simple shows, a trivia night, and quickly expanded into a variety of events trying to give our local artists of all types another forum and promote the heck out of it to get people down here. We specifically tried some different things like Buzzed Bingo that maybe would get those people who don’t normally come downtown down there. Then we gave out prizes from other downtown businesses to give them a reason to come back.

We kept looking for ways to make things better, attending the downtown retailers meetings so we could look for overlaps or creative promotions. “Why Not Wednesdays” for instance, or the holiday walks, we tried to provide entertainment and promotion to help us all succeed. When we realized we couldn’t have outdoor seating we looked into the law and then worked with DSI to get that law changed so that we could. Again offering the experience to everyone else downtown who might want the same thing. The rising tide lifts all boats.

Finally, our hope was that we’d see multiple areas downtown like the #AdamsFamily and have encouraged other blocks to work together. How cool would it be to have distinct little mini-neighborhoods in a vibrant downtown?

We need a revitalized downtown, especially coming out of the current pandemic. We need an Arts & Entertainment district.