Developer moves forward with effort to restart stalled Colman Yards project with new contractor

Founder of J. Jeffers & Co. has been meeting with civic leaders as they prepare to restart construction

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our mobile app

ROCKFORD — Longtime southwest Rockford businessman Joe Bove has watched plans to revamp the Barber-Colman campus evaporate several times during its roughly two and a half decades of vacancy.

There was the late businessman Ken Hendrick’s pitch for a casino, a plan to turn it into a youth sports complex, and a proposal to make it the home of Rock Valley College’s advanced technology center.

Nothing had moved forward until J. Jeffers & Co. broke ground on its massive mixed-use development on South Main Street in November 2023. Then, about a year later, it stalled.

For Bove it felt like deja vu.

“I was really concerned about it because I’ve seen it stop so many times,” said Bove, 83, who has owned Bove’s Auto Repair on nearby Ferguson Street for 62 years and worked there for 72 years.

The plans to rebuild the vacant manufacturing complex into a mix of apartments and businesses called Colman Yards has been stalled now for about eight months, and the developer fired its lead contractor. The company is working to restart the development with a new general contractor, Ringland-Johnson Construction, after it settles a series of financial matters tied to the firing of ENC Construction & Development of Chicago.

ENC has filed about $6 million in mechanics liens against the property, according to records filed at the Winnebago County Clerk & Recorder’s Office. Those amounts include approximately $5.8 million owed to subcontractors, which also filed similar liens separately on the property. Liens have been filed as recently as Tuesday.

J. Jeffers & Co. said it is working in conjunction with ENC and the bond surety company to make sure all payments are cleared so that subcontractor liens can be released and work can restart.

“Our capital partners remain committed to Colman Yards, and we look forward to completing the project,” a company spokesperson told the Rock River Current.

Renewed confidence

Despite the challenges to restart the project, Bove and others who have been in contact with Milwaukee-based J. Jeffers say they have renewed optimism about the future of Colman Yards.

Josh Jeffers, the founder and CEO of the company, has been in Rockford recently to meet with civic groups and partners as they prepare to restart the project.

Bove, who is vice president of the nonprofit southwest side economic development group SWIFTT, was in one of those meetings.

“I think we’ve got a winner here this time with Ringland-Johnson,” Bove said. “I think they’re going to get the project moving and get it done.”

Jeffers and other company representatives have also met with the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois, Transform Rockford, GoRockford, the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce, Rockford Promise, Region 1 Planning Council, the International Women’s Baseball Center and city officials.

“I have a lot of confidence in the future of Colman Yards,” said John Groh, CEO of GoRockford. “Big projects take time. They are complex and often take longer to complete than initially expected. However, we can look back and see successful developments such as the Embassy Suites and the UW Health Sports Factory and know the wait is always worth it.”

Jennifer Smith, engagement director for the Community Foundation, said Jeffers effort to personally meet with civic groups indicated to them the company’s commitment to move the project forward.

“The public is aware that there has been issues with the general contractor and they’re switching a general contractor,” Smith said. “The legal issues tied up in that just takes time.”

She said she’d like to see J. Jeffers presence in the community be more visible and vocal as the development moves forward. She said she’s confident construction will restart and wants to see the energy and enthusiasm that initially surrounded the project reborn.

“We’re really excited to see that project continue and for the company to get even more deeply engaged in Rockford,” Smith said.

New contractor, timeline

Rudy Valdez, president of SWIFTT, said the community has been filled with unanswered questions about the future of the project. He said meeting with Jeffers eased concerns about the delay, the liens, and the financing for the project.

“It looks like they’re going to be licking their wounds, lessons learned, and moving forward,” Valdez said. “We came out feeling confident that it’s going to move forward. .. I think it’s just a reset. That’s a good thing.”

It’s still not clear when work could resume on the Barber-Colman site. Developers had initially hoped to resume construction in April. Valdez said a clear timeline is still something SWIFTT and other community members want to see.

“Two months from now if we’re still not hearing anything and there’s no timeline, then I would start worrying, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Valdez said.

J. Jeffers & Co. said the timeline to restart is largely dependent on the process with the bond surety company. That bond was required from the general contractor as part of the project. It is intended to protect the city and developer from financial losses in the case the work was not completed.

“We’ve worked diligently with general contractor Ringland-Johnson for several months to assess where things left off with ENC after we terminated them for cause and to provide a path forward for the project. We look forward to pursuing this discussion further with the surety company, which controls the process timing,” a company spokesperson told the Rock River Current. “We continue to provide project information to the surety for its review and consideration and are anxious to obtain their confirmation of our bond claims and direction on how to proceed (which we are strongly pushing to include Ringland-Johnson).”

Ringland-Johnson, a local company that has been involved in other notable developments including the construction of Hard Rock Casino Rockford and the ongoing revamp of the Public Safety Building, has been preparing to take on the development since shortly after work stopped.

“Ringland-Johnson has been intimately involved in this project since the start of 2025, working toward a successful cost estimate utilizing both local contractors, subcontractors and suppliers but also working with the building trades union to have the project be all union members and union employees,” said Brent Johnson, chairman and CEO of Ringland-Johnson. “Over the past few weeks and months we’ve been given some targets to work toward to lower costs on certain trades and we’ve been successful in all of those metrics as of this week. We need to discuss those with J. Jeffers next week as well.”

Union involvement

Ringland-Johnson’s commitment to working with building trades unions is notable because concerns about the lack of a partnership with organized labor nearly prevented the project from getting City Council approval in 2023. Aldermen were split over the requirement of a project labor agreement, a type of collective bargaining deal with unions, before Mayor Tom McNamara broke a tie vote to move Colman Yards forward.

“I think we’re closer now than we’ve ever been to getting this thing done,” said Alan Golden, president of the Northwestern Illinois Building Trades Unions. “I’ve had times through the months that I have been pessimistic about whether it’s going to happen, but I believe it’s going to happen for sure.”

Golden said Ringland-Johnson’s involvement and increased communication from J. Jeffers has given the union more confidence.

“It’s unfortunate the situation that we all had to go through to get to this point, but I’m glad we’re here,” Golden said. “We’re looking forward to turning that page and getting to work.”

He said there is urgency to restart the project because of the increasing price of materials and the potential affect of tariffs on supplies.

Before work stalled, crews had completed interior demolition and environmental abatement to prepare three historic buildings for their future residential and commercial use.

Work was also underway on a new 336-space parking garage, among other improvements.

The first phase was expected to cost $170 million when ground broke in November. That portion of the work aims to renovate nine long vacant historic buildings along South Main and Loomis streets into 334 apartments and 105,000 square feet of commercial space. A new 336-space parking deck is also being built.

The entirety of the multiphase project, estimated at more than $430 million when it was unveiled in 2023, would create more than 900 living units and roughly 130,000 square feet of commercial space.

The work is aided by millions of dollars in state and city incentives, including a $6 million advance from tax increment finance district funds, $4 million state grant, a $2 million environmental lawsuit settlement, TIF district reimbursements, historic tax credits and multiple loans. That money, however, was not provided to the developer up front. It was held in an escrow account and dispersed by the city as invoices came in.

“All of the (subcontractors) that you see that have not been paid will be paid and that work will continue,” Mayor Tom McNamara said on the Rock River Current’s This Week in the Stateline podcast.

Historic rebuild

The site has a deep connection to Rockford’s manufacturing history. Howard Colman partnered with investor W A. Barber in the late 1800s to form the company, and its first factory was built at Loomis and Rock streets in 1902. It grew to more than 20 structures spanning 17 acres over several decades in operation.

Reed-Chatwood purchased the property in 1984, taking over textile manufacturing and leasing large portions back to divisions of Barber-Colman and other companies.

The complex has been vacant since Reed-Chatwood closed in 2001. The city purchased the property a year later and has been working to find a developer to bring the campus back to life ever since.

“The history of Colman Yards and the Colman family in Rockford: It would really be awe-inspiring to be a part of that,” Johnson said. “The master plan that J. Jeffers and the city have for this project would be a game-changer for the entire community of Rockford but especially the southwest sector.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas