Business is personal for frozen custard CEO

Last edited 8:33 a.m., June 26, 2026 [Editor's note: A reference to sales tax has been changed to property tax.]

Andy Kuntz can’t seem to stop scrolling through social media.

The CEO of Andy’s Frozen Custard Inc. was taken aback by the backlash among some members of the public to his request for $32 million in Chapter 100 industrial development bonds from the city of Springfield.

“It’s frustrating to us,” Kuntz said in a June 23 interview in his current company headquarters. “There’s a huge misunderstanding that we’re getting all this money from the city to build a new headquarters. Not only are we not getting a dime from the city – we’re paying them.”

Kuntz estimates that in time, the development of a new HQ at the corner of East Division Street and LeCompte Road will bring in many times more property tax revenue than the property generates now – an estimated $2,600 per year in recent times, according to a city staff report.

Approval pending
At a June 22 Springfield City Council meeting, that body approved a resolution that merely signaled its willingness to issue $32 million in bonds as requested by Andy’s Frozen Custard officials. The actual vote on whether to issue the bonds is a later step in the process, but the initial vote gives the company sufficient confidence to put plans into place.

Chapter 100 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri allows local governments to issue bonds to provide property tax abatement for industrial development projects and certain types of commercial development for private corporations, partnerships and individuals, the staff explanation of the council bill states.

If bonds are ultimately approved and issued, ownership of the property under development is transferred to the city of Springfield for a declared period of time – Andy’s is seeking a 25-year agreement. The city is tax exempt, and it passes its tax exempt status to the property for the duration of the agreement. The city’s tax exempt status may also be used to purchase building materials without paying state and local sales taxes.

Bond proceeds are used to fund construction, with the company buying the bonds and repaying them over a 25-year term. When bonds are completely repaid, the title to the property is conveyed back to the company.

Throughout the agreement, the company pays the city payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, that equate to a portion of the exempted property taxes, the explanation of the bill states.

Chapter 100 bonds are part of a wide array of development incentives offered by Springfield. The website of the city’s Department of Workforce & Economic Vitality lists incentives, including special taxing districts, tax increment financing, small business loan programs and property tax abatement, which is how Chapter 100 bonds are classified.

The day after the council meeting, Kuntz was reading coverage of council’s agreement in principle to issuing the bonds, and he was also looking at the public response to the news. Some headlines erroneously stated that council had approved the bonds – and that’s not the case. Even Springfield Business Journal ended up correcting a headline goof that said the city was willing to extend a $32 million tax abatement to the company. The bonds themselves, if issued, would be valued at $32 million, and the abatement would be calculated as a portion of that amount.

Specifically, the level of tax abatement requested by Andy’s over the 25-year term of the bond agreement is 90% for the first 10 years, 75% for the next five, 60% for the five years that follow and 50% for the last five, as previously reported in SBJ.

Springfield favored
Kuntz said he wants his company to remain in Springfield.

“We bought that land. We’d love to be out there, and we think it’s a great area,” Kuntz said. “It’s certainly our first priority to build our home headquarters in Springfield, Missouri – but we really need this.”

He added that the reality is that another community would provide incentives at the proposed level or more.

"We haven’t really gone down that avenue,” Kuntz said. “We’re pretty certain that if we got in the weeds on this with Kansas City or somewhere like that, it would probably be, quite honestly, more than what we’re asking for – but we want it to be here.”

Kuntz said he loves Springfield, where the company has been for 39 years. His children have graduated from local schools, and one still lives here.

“We think it’s a great spot for what we’re wanting to do. It would really give us the ability to build a unique Andy’s campus,” he said.

With stores in 15 states – some franchised and some corporately owned – Kuntz said once or twice a year, all managers and assistant managers are brought in for training.

“They’re all staying in hotels, and we’re all eating in restaurants and having food catered in here,” he said. “We envision a unique office space that attracts Grade A talent that wants to come and live in Springfield, Missouri – and not only come here for training but come and live here and work here.”

Design is important to Kuntz.

“A lot of design thought has gone into it, creating open, light spaces for great working environments,” he said.

“It’s just been frustrating to us to read some of the comments, and I get it – it’s just a small percentage, probably,” he said. “It just felt like to me, it’s like, gosh, this thing is all messed up. People think we’re getting all this money, and the reality is, we’re not getting any. We’ve asked for a little help when it comes to property tax and sales tax exemption.”

Kuntz said he believes his company’s request is fair and appropriate to make. That doesn’t help him stomach the criticism.

“We’re a public-facing business,” he said. “These are our customers, and we’re sensitive to that stuff. We’re told to just ignore it, but that’s easier said than done.”

Andy’s has 190 stores, so Kuntz is used to construction expenses.

“Stores today are almost $2 million to build, and by the time you put equipment in them and buy the land, it’s well over $3 million,” he said. “That’s real money that it takes to grow the business and provide jobs.”

Kuntz said the job growth projections in his company’s proposal are conservative, with incremental additions of five employees in each of the first two years of the agreement and three more in the two years that follow.

“The reality is, it’s probably more like five or six a year every year,” he said. “We just wanted to be able to give a number that we could live up to. The capacity of the space that we’re talking about building would be almost 100 employees, and we have 55 today.”

He added that $32 million is an all-in number.

“It’s likely that we won’t get to that number.”

Robert de la Fuente, Andy’s director of real estate, said that whether the investment reaches the $32 million mark or not, the investment is made on the company’s dime and is not a handout from the city.

“That’s the biggest miscommunication that frustrates everyone,” he said. “We’re funding all their expenses to look at and negotiate a potential deal and funding and financing the entire cost, whatever that may be.”

Kuntz added that the tax abatements will fund the hires of one or two people per year.

KC an option
While Andy’s is headquartered in Springfield, Kansas City is also an option for Kuntz.

“We could have said nothing and gone to Kansas City and probably got every bit of this, and it would have made no noise at all other than, ‘Andy’s is moving to Kansas City,’” Kuntz said. “We could have very quietly just went and done something else.”

Kuntz stressed that he was never threatening to locate the headquarters in Kansas City, but that was a practical option for the company. He said he was born there and owns a residence there. His daughter lives there, and so does the company president. There are 15 Andy’s Frozen Custard locations within that city.

But Kuntz can’t easily ignore social media comments about his company’s Chapter 100 proposal as he takes a moment during his interview to read a few, though he does not specify the thread.

One commenter quips that he will deposit 600 roaches at the new headquarters if he doesn’t receive free ice cream for a year.

Another complains about the ugly buildings on Division, suggesting the city would do better to tear them all down.

Kuntz said everyone tells him not to read comments, but, he said, those are his customers and his community, and the feedback stings.

De la Fuente said PILOTs are the portion that the company pays, and the PILOTs are modeled on an estimated value of the future tax stream, with $32 million on the high end.

Kuntz said taxes on the current headquarters are about $40,000 per year, and he believes the new property will remit double that amount. The PILOTs would have the company paying percentages of the value in addition to the existing base-level taxation of $2,600, which does not go away.

De la Fuente said the model shows nearly $150,000 paid in PILOTs in the first 10 years. With some back-of-envelope calculations, Kuntz figured the company would pay roughly $1.1 million over the 25-year agreement in PILOTs alone.

Incentive debate
While Andy’s officials outline the benefits of the Chapter 100 bond incentive, there are some who oppose the use of the tool. PILOTs generate money to support local entities, but at a greatly discounted rate, impacting potential revenue to school districts, libraries and emergency services.

Without development, taxation is limited to the value of existing land use; however, the area near West Division Street and LeCompte Road is one of the city’s new hot spots for industrial development, with a 390-acre Sky Light Surface Park platted above the Springfield Underground and with recent infrastructure improvements literally paving the way to industrial growth. Residential development is also in the works with the 510-unit East Division Development LLC project that is currently stalled by a lawsuit from nearby residents.

In short, PILOT payments from Chapter 100 incentive agreements can generate revenue for taxing entities, but greater revenue is possible if companies are willing to develop in the same location without the use of the incentive.

The Chapter 100 incentive has been used elsewhere in the city of Springfield. According to past SBJ reporting, developer Opus Northwest LLC in 2009 negotiated $21.5 million in Chapter 100 bonds to construct what would become the Forvis Mazars building at 910 E. St. Louis St., with 100% abatement for the first 10 years and 50% abatement for the next 15.

Council has also given the go-ahead three times for Chapter 100 bonds for expansions of production lines at Kraft Heinz, with up to $26 million approved in 2012, $36 million in 2016 and $48 million in 2020, according to past SBJ reporting.