Magazine names former Lamar resident named Springfield Person of the Year

GO Magazine, Springfield, has named former Lamar resident Paul Sundy Springfield's Person of the Year. The following passage is taken from the article:

Consider this: less than a year and a half ago, Icon Nightclub, along with the Skinny Improv, Geekerz, Trolley’s, Little Tattoo parlor and a now-defunct plasma clinic, were the only consumer businesses to call Park Central East home (Riad has a Park Central Square address). Since then, the Gillioz has opened along with Tonic Ultralounge, resale boutique Zoey’s, an expanded Skinny and Big Smile Photography. Sundy has added two businesses to the mix—Fedora Social House, set to open in January, and the ultra-successful Big Whiskey’s, the casual beer and bar-food haven that has wrested downtown’s “every man” mantle from the likes of Harpo’s, Springfield Brewing Company and Patton Alley Pub. Park Central East is a thriving block in a downtown struggling to find itself long after most thought it would be over its growing pains.

All of this can be attributed, directly or indirectly, to the well-defined business strategy laid out by Paul and his business partners—upscale but accessible, affordable but not cheap. It’s a strategy that began at Icon but doesn’t end on Park Central East; Paul and friend Jay Hickman opened Parlor 88 on the south side just last summer. From there, Sundy says, he’d like to see a Parlor in every suburb in the country—“the Starbucks of lounges”, as he puts it. In truth, Paul doesn’t know where his journey ends.

Paul Sundy's mother, Sandy Sundy (now Rogers) taught several years at Lamar Elementary School, while his older sister Holly Willhite, is the journalism teacher at Lamar High School.

(Go Magazine photo)