(calm music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to InFocus on WSIU.

I'm Brian Sapp.

In this episode, we'll be exploring building a business in Illinois.

We're going to talk with businesses that took the seed of an idea, growing them into a thriving part of the community.

One of those businesses, Crucial MRO, is a company that performs maintenance on airline fleets.

They found their way to Southern Illinois Airport after a chance encounter at a trade show.

After starting with two hangers, they've worked on more than 180 jets in the last three years.

We'll also talk with Ryan McCrady, who is the executive director of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance.

We found out about their work to bring new businesses to the area and how they support the ones who are already here.

But first, we're headed to Springfield.

Illinois' capital is known for its history and ties to President Lincoln.

We're going to meet Court and Karen Conn.

They've grown Conn's Hospitality Group into 10 hospitality based properties, all of it growing from a restaurant started by Court's father Roy 70 years ago.

The Conns have found a way to take historic buildings, preserve them, and turn them into something new.

(calm music) - Today, Conn's Hospitality Group is a mixture of very, very diverse hospitality, from coffee shop to a English pub to brew pubs to a banquet facility and a bed and breakfast inn.

So we do a lot of things.

- And what we really strive for is taking older buildings and rehabbing those and turning them back into viable community assets that can bring people together so that they can share community.

And so we set our model with being we are a company that preserves history through hospitality.

Hospitality is about telling stories.

We love to tell stories, and we love to serve people.

- [Brian Sapp] More than 70 years ago, Conn's Hospitality Group got its start from a restaurant begun by Court's father Roy in 1948.

- Well, I grew up in the restaurant business.

My dad started his first restaurant a year after I was born.

So he always had restaurants.

I worked in them.

I started as a dishwasher, breakfast cook.

I probably did it all through high school 'till I went away to college and then the Navy.

I think that, I don't know, I just always felt comfortable in the industry.

The cafeteria during the day was Conn's Cafeteria, but at night, we changed it to the Barnstormer.

And it was an aviation theme club, bar, that I actually put a disco in.

And we ran a disco in there for almost eight years.

And we were open seven nights a week from 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM, and it was a very big success.

- [Brian Sapp] Karen began working for the Conn family as a teenager, spending her summers working their concession stand at the state fairgrounds.

She's been with Conns ever since, marrying Court in 1996.

In the early '80s, Court's father sold the building where they had run the restaurant.

After that, they focused on running a catering business.

Then just a few years later, Court took over the business from his father.

In the early '90s, a presentation at a catering trade show gave him an inspiration that set the Conns on the path to merge historic preservation and hospitality.

- And her name was Phila Hach, and she was from Clarksville, Tennessee, and Phila started her whole talk.

She says, "If you're an off-premise catering, you should be in a bed and breakfast business because they're very compatible businesses."

- So that's all our vision was at the time, was just a small bed and breakfast that maybe we can do some catering out of.

And it took us approximately four years to find that property.

And once we found the property, it wasn't for sale, but it didn't stop us.

- [Brian Sapp] They didn't give up.

After convincing the owner to sell, they began the work to make their project a reality.

- If you go to the Inn at 835 today, no resemblance to what it looked like the day we took it over.

The staircase, every door, everything you see on the first floor that is oak was painted, and we stripped it all.

When we got up to the second and third floor, we couldn't do that.

It was just too much.

But we got our elevator, we got a sprinkler, we got a new plumbing, new electric, and we opened it in May of 1997.

They had their first wedding at that property in December of '96.

In the middle of construction, Karen and I got married.

- So it all kind of started with the catering.

It led us to the Inn at 835.

The Inn at 835 led us to the passion of appreciating our past in order to, or I'm sorry, preserving our past in order for us to appreciate what we have in the future.

- [Brian Sapp] Many of their projects have come about just like this, not when they were actively looking, but when they least expected it.

- And we drove by this abandoned, or it looked to be abandoned house at the corner of Seventh and Jackson Street.

And it was right across the street from the Lincoln Home visitor center.

There's opportunity there.

There's so much potential.

So what did we do?

We went up, knocked on the door, and we said, "Hey, we're Court and Karen Conn. We own the Inn at 835, we want to purchase your building if we can walk through it and negotiate."

He said no, but over a course of period, he said yes.

And we ended up buying it.

- [Brian Sapp] As they worked out their plans to develop this new property, the city of Springfield approached, asking if they would help save the Maisenbacher House.

That was the home where Abraham Lincoln had loaned $650 to the owner so he could finish its construction.

They found they couldn't salvage the first house they bought, so they demolished it, planning to move the new house onto the foundation.

And if that wasn't a big enough challenge, the Conns started this project during the financial crisis in 2008.

- We're within weeks of foreclosure because our bank went into FDIC receivership, and we're trying to figure it out.

And lo and behold, the good Lord above, within just a few weeks of this all going south, we had a bank step up and say, "We believe in you, we know that you can do it, and we want to take your loans."

And it all goes back to community.

They knew who we were personally that they were willing to take that risk during the crisis, and we had a new bank step on and save us from that.

- [Brian Sapp] These challenges built the Conn's resilience, giving them the determination to finish the work of developing this soon to be brewery.

- There's a lot of opportunity if we were to do that.

But it does take an extreme risk.

And after sitting down and talking about the risk that it would take, we were like, if we could get through the crisis, almost being foreclosed on, having a house that sits in the middle of Jackson and Seventh Street for over a month, I think we can take this risk, and I think we have the perseverance to do it.

So moving forward in 2012, we opened up Obed & Isaac's in Springfield, which is Springfield's first microbrew pub.

- [Brian Sapp] And after nearly 40 years, taking risks and pursuing opportunities have become an important part of the Conn's recipe for success.

- There's five that I would say life lessons I've learned, and I think it's all of these together and not one individual.

You work hard, you're honest, you never give up, you take reasonable risk, and you take care of yourself and your family.

- My husband, he really does have a keen sense of business.

And I am a dreamer.

Like I have all these great ideas that come to me, and he kind of helps balance those down.

And I do think that he and I play off of each other really well.

He knows when to step in, and he also knows when to get out of the way.

It's not for the light of heart.

You need to have determination, and you have to be willing to take risk and perseverance.

It's gonna be hard, hard, hard.

But if you wake up every day with that commitment that you're gonna get it done, you'll be successful.

Don't take no for an answer.

- [Brain Sapp] Their current project is renovating the Vinegar Hill Mall.

It was a popular Springfield mall during the '80s and '90s that the Conns bought in 2021.

They've already opened a cafe and an English pub on the site.

It's just another example of the Conn's desire to preserve and give new life to the stories hidden throughout their community.

- We're both very proud, and we're very humbled by the accolades we receive.

And I don't think there's two people in this city that has done as much as we have to save historic structures and adapt and reuse them.

I mean, you couldn't imagine walking into the Inn at 835 and envision that, and Obed & Isaac's, you couldn't envision that.

- When people look at Conns, I really hope that they see us as giving back to the community, whether it's what we give back in the form of the buildings and preserving them or those stories that come along with them.

As an example, Vinegar Hill Mall.

This was an iconic property here in the '80s and the '90s.

As my generation grew up, they would come here and whether it was they were dining or they were going to the nightclubs, but the number of people that walked through here and say, "Oh, back in the day, this and this.

And we used to do this and we used to do that."

I want people to see us as Conn's Hospitality Group that's helped preserving those stories so they're still here for the generation's children and grandchildren and grandchildren.

- If you'd like to learn more about Conn's Hospitality Group and the work that Karen and Court are doing, visit their website, connshg.com.

If you're starting a business, trying to keep one running, or even looking to expand, you might need help and expertise to find the resources to navigate the challenges of meeting your goals.

That's where economic development organizations like the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance jump in.

We sat down with Ryan McCrady, the executive director of the SSGA.

He told us about the services that they provide to not only bring businesses to Springfield and Sangamon County, but also the work they do to keep businesses in the community.

For our viewers out there and who may not be familiar with Springfield, what is the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance?

- The Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance is a public-private partnership that was founded in 2018, and we are what's called an economic development organization.

We do receive funding from local governments, but about 30 private companies in Springfield came together to create the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance.

Our mission is economic development.

So what we want to see is more people living and working in Springfield and Sangamon County, and we achieve that through the effort of economic development, which is selling the community to businesses that are here, to residents that are here, and try to get them to stay here.

And we try to attract new businesses to the community.

And we also work with local businesses to attract residents and so they can attract talent into their businesses.

- What are some of those specific ways you try to achieve that mission?

- Well we do business attraction by working with what are called site selection consultants.

These are consultants that companies hire when they're trying to determine where to place their operations.

We also work hard at retaining our businesses, and we have about 100 meetings every year with local businesses to learn about things that are a challenge for them and try to help keep them here.

And we also try to get them to expand and add workers here in our community.

But the most important thing we tell them is that we appreciate them being in our community, we're glad they're here, and we want them to stay here.

- What are some of the things that you offer to businesses in that end?

Like resources that they can have from you guys?

- Sure, the Growth Alliance wants to kind of be like the concierge at the front of the hotel for businesses.

So if you need something, reach out to us, ask us, and we're gonna figure out an answer.

We're not a fee for service organization, which is nice too.

So there's not a cost for calling us.

Some of the things we typically can help with are site location.

Let's say you're a business here today or a business looking to come here.

Maybe you need a office space or a building or a piece of land.

We can do confidential site selection.

So the business would give us the requirements they have for the site or building, we would get those out to landowners and brokers, and when they find things they like, we connect those two parties.

But they can do that confidentially with us.

We can also help them access data sets and do market analysis through databases that we have access to.

Maybe they wanna understand what are the traffic counts on a street, maybe it's a retailer or a restaurant.

And looking at a location, how many cars are going by there every day?

How many people work in that neighborhood?

What's the market for pizza purchasing, right, or apparels or sporting goods.

Those are all databases we can access and provide them that information so they can make informed decisions about where they locate.

And then sometimes they need to contact a state, federal, or local governmental office with a question that they have.

It's hard for a business, especially a small to mid-size business, to have the time to research what's the exact phone number and things like that.

Well they can reach out to the Growth Alliance, and we're gonna put them right on it.

Tell them right where to go and streamline that for them so they can spend time on higher value tasks like running their business.

- What are we seeing statewide, and what are you hearing from other economic development for some people that want to maybe look at businesses across the state?

- So across the state of Illinois, we're seeing a lot of growth in manufacturing right now, which is very interesting.

There's significant reshoring opportunities, so maybe manufacturers that have locations in other countries, they're looking to bring manufacturing back.

Illinois is a very competitive state for that because of our significant workforce in manufacturing.

But also we are a deregulated state for electric and natural gas purchasing.

So industrial gas and electric rates here are very competitive and affordable.

That's a big factor for manufacturers because they almost always use a lot of electricity or a lot of natural gas or a lot of water in the work that they do.

That's a real growth opportunity.

The other growth opportunity is in information technology and quantum computing.

The state of Illinois has made a very active effort to attract that into our state.

And that is really important because of the outstanding state universities we have.

So the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduates more engineers every year than MIT and Stanford combined.

So we are producing that workforce.

We need to make sure we have the employers here to capture them so we're not exporting talent.

That's really important.

The agriculture industry and technology advancements in agriculture I think will still be a big factor across the entire state of Illinois.

It's our largest industry, and there's a lot of tremendous amount of technology that goes into farming now.

Also what you have to think about is only 2% of the people that work in the ag industry farm.

So the supporting positions are vast in there and the ability to infuse technology into farming continues to grow and will be an opportunity going forward.

- So it looks like we have a bright future, lots of opportunities for different areas.

- I believe the future of Illinois' economy is very bright and that we should lean into the diversity of the economy.

Yes, you have large metropolitan areas like Chicago, and then as we go downstate, the economy's very different.

But there's power in that because all your eggs are not in one basket.

And so being able to leverage both the diverse economy that we have to support each other, it's what's gonna help our state succeed.

- McCrady says that they're a no fee program.

That means if you're in Springfield or Sangamon County and would like support in growing your business, they can provide a lot of help for free.

Contact the Growth Alliance or visit their website thriveinspi.org.

Now if you live outside that area, start with your own Chamber of Commerce or other economic development organizations in your community.

For our next story of growth, we're going to come further south to Southern Illinois Airport that's just outside of Carbondale.

The airport is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

The airport has been home to the aviation program of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale for 65 years.

They're building on that tradition and reputation to bring new developments to the airport.

Crucial MRO is one of those.

They landed at the airport after a chance meeting at an aviation trade show.

Crucial started out completing orders for repairing airplane parts.

Now they're looking to expand their operation from two hangers to a total of four at the airport, with expansion planned into the nearby community.

(calm music) - Now we're in the process of taking the airplane down on the inside, sidewall, seats, floor panels, things of that nature.

And we're gonna open this airplane up.

There's a whole bunch of inspection requirements from the nose all the way down to the end of the cargo bay.

We're gonna look at every piece of frame skin on the inside and out all the way down.

Look for defects.

- Wesley Perkins is the vice president of Crucial MRO located at the Southern Illinois Airport.

MRO stands for maintenance, repair, and overhaul.

Crucial is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration to work on planes over 12,000 pounds.

They're a company that has built a nationwide customer base, bringing their jets here to Carbondale.

- Yeah, we do it all.

We'll do it from landing gear to engine changes.

And then every commercial aircraft, roughly, depending on utilization, 2 1/2 years requires a heavy maintenance visit where it sets the airplane down, we take the interiors out, we take a lot of the exterior panels and stuff that you see that are open here, inspect, make sure there's no defects, no corrosion, repair any findings that we do find, 'cause you'll find stuff, nothing major, but it's just wear and tear.

And then we put that back together, refreshing the interior if that's what they want done.

Any other projects that they've set on the back burner for modifications or anything at that time, that's when we'll do it right then and there.

And then once that is all completed, we turn it back over to the customer, and they come get their airplanes.

- [Brian Sapp] Since starting their work three years ago, Perkins says they finished 185 planes.

Crucial's staff of 65 completes three to four planes per month.

During filming, they were working on damage from a recent bird strike on one plane, and they had just started work on another plane from their biggest contract, JSX Aviation out of Dallas, Texas.

- We're gonna go through and start doing our modifications, run our wiring, put the outlets in, the Starlink Wi-Fi, and then we'll start assembling the interior with the updated seats, the updated sidewalls, all that good stuff.

And it's gonna look all brand new with LED lighting and things of that nature and... - [Brain Sapp] Although they landed in southern Illinois back in 2019, Crucial owners Marc and Stacy Burton have been working in aviation for much longer.

- They've been in aviation for a long time.

They got their start way back in 1999 doing aircraft component repairs, flaps, interiors, sidewall, seats, things of that nature off airport.

So if you had something on your aircraft that needed to be repaired, you could ship it to their facility to get it fixed.

And they had a couple different throughout the US, different locations.

It was about four years ago, four or five years ago now that the director of the airport, Gary Schafer, who actually just retired here recently, met them at a trade show.

Said, "Hey, I've got an opportunity to build some hangers down here with some funds and stuff that the airport has.

Would you be interested?"

And Marc and Stacy with their business model has always been a husband and wife team that have owned these facilities.

So you don't typically start off privately owned on an operation like this unless it's something that just makes total sense for what you want to do.

So that's kind of how the origin story of this whole started.

They met Gary.

- [Brain Sapp] Perkins has also spent his career in aviation.

After earning a degree in aircraft maintenance, he's worked at airports around the country.

Before coming to Crucial three years ago, he ran plane maintenance for GoJet at LaGuardia Airport, oftentimes seeing his crews complete more than 100 planes a day.

- So when I got hooked up with them, this is all brand new, still kind of in concept phase, but the hangers and stuff were here, and we had to build it.

And we still had two repair stations in work.

We had a Columbus, Ohio location and a Foristell, Missouri or outside of St. Louis location.

So we were still doing work through those two locations.

So while managing those two locations, we were also here trying to get this up and going.

And so it was a slow process.

Like I said, it's kind of a deal.

You can't become a 145 repair station without having your facilities in place, your people in place, your tooling, your parts, all this stuff that you need to run the facility.

You gotta prove you can run the facility.

You can't just say, "I want to do it."

So several month process there.

And it's tough because there's a lot of money going out, not a lot of money coming in.

But we got over that hump to where we are today where we have standard customers in and out every month.

- [Brain Sapp] After all the work to earn their FAA certification, the Burtons turn next to building their reputation in the aviation industry.

- We have a very good reputation in the industry of putting out a quality product.

And we meet the deadlines that we put out.

We don't set the expectation where we're gonna fail.

We tell them as it is, but then we also do it in a timeframe and a quality aspect that the customer's expecting.

And when that word gets out in aviation, aviation's big as a whole worldwide, it's pretty big, but it's actually really small when you get down to it.

All the decision makers of the airlines and aircraft and stuff, especially on the commercial side, it's a pretty tight-knit group.

So when the word gets out, it sticks, good or bad.

And we got the good words.

- [Brain Sapp] This reputation is keeping their hangers and schedules full.

This work is leading Crucial to take a look at expansion, beginning with a plan to move some of their work into nearby Murphysboro.

- We purchased the building in town, the Curwood Building, an old warehouse there in town.

Our plan is to put our interior shop over there and not only support what we have going on in these hangers, but back to the roots of Crucial where they were bringing in outside customers for repairs and stuff like that.

And that's the key piece that we were really wanting to put together in the puzzle.

So short term wise, that's where our short term goals are at.

Long term are fully anticipating on moving these hangers on down the way here.

So we have two here, they're 40,000 square foot.

We'd like to replicate two more and keep growing as we go.

The demand is there.

We turn down people quite often, which I absolutely hate doing.

But if you don't have the room, you just don't have the room.

So we would like to see this whole building expand on down towards the road and really grow the airport that way.

- [Brain Sapp] This growth is not limited to just repair work.

Crucial MRO in partnership with the city of Murphysboro was one of 15 nationwide recipients of the 2025 Community Impact Award by Trade and Industry Development magazine for their impact on delivering lasting community benefits.

Perkins says they're happy to strengthen their relationship with the Southern Illinois community.

- So we've really embraced the Southern Illinois area.

We look at it from a couple different aspects.

Not only are we providing jobs and careers for people that may not have that opportunity because of the area, but we like to give back too.

We're always part of community efforts in Murphysboro and Carbondale, we're part of the Chamber of Commerce in both areas.

We participate in all their fundraisers and things like that.

And we enjoy doing it 'cause it not only helps...

It helps us bring face to what we're trying to do down here 'cause the more community support we have for that kind of thing helps boost our business as well.

So we realize being a part of the community and being established in the community, it's got great benefits.

- [Brain Sapp] Even after 16 years of working for airlines and now working for Crucial, Perkins is proud to be part of a team trying to build a legacy with their work.

- It's good, man, it's a good feeling.

(laughs) It was kind of weird at first because I've seen planes, I'll work on a plane at the airline, and I'll see 100 of them leave a day.

So I got pretty used to it.

But then you get down to this level of the heavy maintenance, I guess you would say, you've seen this airplane sitting here for 30, 35 days, or the case may be, and then you see two pilots walk through the door and say, "Is it ready?"

And we're like, "It's ready, take it guys."

And so they hop in and go.

And it's pretty rewarding.

It's pretty rewarding to see that.

And I think our guys feel the same way.

There's a lot of guys and gals behind the scenes, and so plane's getting ready to leave, you'll see folks go out on the ramp there and watch it.

And I love seeing it.

I mean, it's in the middle of the work day, and there's four or five, six people out there watching the airplane take off.

But they know that they all contributed to that project.

And there it goes.

So you see a little... You see some reward when these things are done, it's just not out of sight, out of mind.

You can't miss it if you're here, you're gonna hear an engine start up and go.

- As Perkins says, Crucial is not done growing.

They have demands to complete more work, and that work requires expansion.

They'll soon open a new interior repair shop in Murphysboro, adding more jobs to the area.

And they're finishing plans with the Southern Illinois Airport to add two new hangers.

If you'd like to find out more about Crucial MRO, you can find them at their website, crucial.team.

That's all for this episode of building a business.

In our next episode, we're going to take a look at the ways companies are innovating and staying at the front edge of their industries.

For WSIU, I'm Brian Sapp.

Thank you for watching.

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