Route 66 Motorheads Bar, Grill and Museum may receive up to a $25,000 sales-tax rebate in exchange for being annexed into the city of Springfield, Illinois.
The bar part of the business, which opened Friday, will open its restaurant next month. Route 66 Motorheads sits at 600 Toronto Road and would use the rebate money to help offset the cost of a $48,000 water line from the city.
The State Journal-Register reports such as sales-tax offer is the first offered by the city for annexations. The city council will vote on the offer, perhaps as soon as Tuesday.
The newspaper reported:
Mayor Jim Langfelder said Motorheads was an ideal addition to the city because it would likely bring more sales tax into the city than what the city initially invests with the rebate.
“Motorheads is going to be a great attraction along Route 66,” Langfelder said. […]
Motorheads, which opened its bar Friday and will open its kitchen within the next month, has been “pre-annexed” into the city, according to owner Ron Metzger. Last week, crews came out and put in a 10-inch main to connect the business to city’s water supply. Metzger paid the $48,000 upfront.
Metzger said the lack of water pressure for an indoor sprinkler system had actually pushed back his opening date. He was preparing to buy big tanks to put in the ground to pump up well water when he was approached by Langfelder about annexing. The cost of the tanks was less than $48,000, and Metzger said he had been content staying in Sangamon County.
He called the incentive “pro-business.”
“Without the incentives, I probably would not go into the city,” Metzger said.
Route 66 Motorheads exists in a former Stuckeys restaurant on Toronto Road west of Interstate 55 south of Springfield.
The business, which uses an auto-racing theme, also contains multiple pieces of memorabilia from Route 66 in central Illinois, including the entrance to the late Bill Shea’s Route 66 Gas Station Museum in Springfield, a Bel-Aire Motel sign in Springfield, a Tops Big Boy sign in Springfield, and a sign from Art’s Motel in nearby Farmersville.
(Image from the interior of Route 66 Motorheads Bar, Grill and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, via Facebook)
We stopped into this new place on Saturday while on the Illinois Route 66 Association Motor Tour. We’d crossed the Chain of Rocks Bridge twice, going both west and then east.
I’d heard of it first in the Route 66 News, but thought it had been open for awhile. Actually, we were in there on the second day of their reopening.
They had to close after a few days being open a few weeks earlier when they didn’t have enough water pressure and had to connect to the city water system.
This is one really nice addition to Route 66.
Will have to check it out the next time I’m home.
Good work on the Mayors part. The Langfelder family has been of service to Springfield for many decades, and the town is better off for it. Hat’s off to him.