Arena site skirmish escalates in council chambers

The firm’s local representative, Becky Spence, spoke at the Oct. 8 Springfield City Council meeting on behalf of BC Development, one of four companies that responded to a May request for proposals for the site.

BC Development’s proposal included a land swap of the former site of the Arbor Motel, 505 St. Louis St., which Spence owns.

BC Development principal Richard Baier told Springfield Business Journal on Oct. 10 that several people in Springfield indicated to him that the city had come to an agreement with Hammons. He would not say from where that information came.

The firm’s concerns were laid out in an Oct. 3 letter to Springfield Economic Development Director Mary Lilly Smith and council.

“There does not seem to be a desire by … the city to enter into open and fair competition for the development of these projects,” Baier’s letter stated. “BC Development continues to be interested in … these potential projects; however, we must be assured that our proposal will be seriously considered.”

Baier was not at the meeting due to a scheduling conflict, Spence said.

Smith agreed that BC Development has not formally withdrawn from the process; she instead described the firm as “nonresponsive.”

The city, Smith said, tried at least three times to contact BC Development through its Kansas City attorney following its request for additional information. The city received no response until Baier’s letter, she said.

“We believe that we have fulfilled our responsibility to contact them and have had sufficient time to enter into negotiations with them,” Smith told council.

Baier, however, said his company did not respond to the city’s request for additional information because of his understanding of the agreement with Hammons.

“We’re interested,” Baier said. “I thought we had adequately answered all the prior questions. I didn’t respond at the later date primarily due to the fact that I thought it was a wasted effort.”

Mayor Tom Carlson reminded everyone in the council chambers that the process is far from complete.

“The reality is nothing has been presented to the City Council to consider at this point,” Carlson said. “Everyone’s acting like this is a done deal. We haven’t even had anything to vote on yet.”

Smith said there is no timeframe in place at this point for when council could have a term sheet to consider from the chosen developer.

The other two developers who submitted proposals for the downtown site were Kansas City-based Opus Northwest LLC, which pitched a headquarters building for accounting firm BKD LLP and a “pad” for a future hotel, and Branson-based HCW Evergreen LLC, which withdrew last month, citing Hammons’ lease on the Expo Center as an obstacle.

HCW Evergreen CEO Rick Huffman told SBJ in late September that Springfield officials indicated to him that BKD was looking to build its headquarters at a separate location, possibly in partnership with Opus.

BKD Operations Partner Bill Kirkman said that while BKD still likes the site, the company is not interested in sharing the space.

“We’re not interested in being on that lot in the same building as a hotel,” Kirkman said. “(The city) talked about building two buildings, but we said that didn’t seem to fit our needs either. It’s the city’s decision, and if they want to have a hotel there, that’s great. But it would make us look somewhere else.”

Kirkman added that the company has an opportunity to build on another undisclosed downtown site but would not share details.

East-west connection

Council also considered an agreement between the city and several south Springfield landowners that would begin the process of creating a new east-west arterial street between U.S. Highway 65 and West Bypass.

According to the agreement, four landowners would donate right of way south of Evans Road for future road construction.

The city would pay the cost of engineering design work for the road, which would eventually stretch from U.S. 65 to the planned extension of West Bypass, and construction design work for the first phase of the road, from U.S. 65 to Southview Street.

Olsson Associates is completing initial engineering work.

City Public Works Director Marc Thornsberry said the arterial was identified by the Ozarks Transportation Organization in both the 2000 connectivity study between Springfield and Branson and the North-South Corridor Study completed earlier this year.

“We have congestion on Campbell (Avenue), and we have congestion on (U.S.) 65,” Thornsberry said. “If we have this east-west connectivity, then you can distribute traffic. The more of those connectors you have, the shorter those trips get.”

Funding sources for the project have not been determined, but Thornsberry said the idea is to use a transportation development district or some other mechanism to pay for the project.

Council is expected to vote on the agreement during its Oct. 22 meeting.[[In-content Ad]]