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Should Springfield use eminent domain to condemn a Halloween attraction? City Council is considering it.

Springfield city government is trying to use eminent domain to acquire the Hotel of Terror — photographed Feb. 6, 2023 — as part of its plans to spiff up the Jordan Creek area in order to attract downtown investment and address stormwater flooding issues.
Gregory Holman/KSMU
Springfield city government is trying to use eminent domain to acquire the Hotel of Terror — photographed Feb. 6, 2023 — as part of its plans to spiff up the Jordan Creek area in order to attract downtown investment and address stormwater flooding issues.

Downtown’s Hotel of Terror has been one of Springfield’s most beloved Halloween attractions since 1978. But now the building stands in the way of government plans to spiff up the Jordan Creek area.

Springfield city government wants to replace an old bridge off Main Avenue downtown and bring Jordan Creek out of its underground channels into daylight, a multimillion-dollar project. The goal is to get investors downtown and improve stormwater flooding.

City staff have acquired all the necessary real estate except for one property: The Hotel of Terror. The city is now trying to use eminent domain to force an acquisition of that building. Sterling Mathis owns the place. He told City Council he’s ready to move the Hotel of Terror to another property. The problem is money.

Sterling Mathis, owner of The Hotel of Terror, speaks to Springfield City Council on Feb. 6, 2023.
Gregory Holman/KSMU
Sterling Mathis, owner of The Hotel of Terror, speaks to Springfield City Council on Feb. 6, 2023.

"All I’m wanting to do is move to the other place," Mathis said Monday night. "There’s — like one of my guys told me earlier, there’s like a handful of people in the country that can build haunted houses. There’s more people that can take appendixes out than build haunted houses. We’ve been doing this a long time. I don’t mind moving. The problem is I can’t do it for half of what they’re telling me I’m going to have to take, or they’re going to take my property.”

The Springfield News-Leader reported Monday that the city’s offer for the Hotel of Terror recently stood at $500,000.

Gregory Holman is a KSMU reporter and editor focusing on public affairs.