City scouting for third industrial park

Amanda Ohlensehlen: A proactive approach helps the city meet the needs of existing and potential local manufacturers.

Now in the works in the city of Springfield: the establishment of Partnership Industrial Center 3, a third industrial park.

At a March 30 report to Springfield City Council, City Manager David Cameron offered a detailed report on progress being made on council’s five priorities for 2026, and buried near the end was this nugget: Sites are being reviewed for the city’s next iteration of PIC.

Cameron said some 15 sites had been reviewed for a future industrial park, based on location and development metrics, and there are three prime candidates. They are Springfield Underground, Moon Light and Morris Industrial Park, with Morris currently viewed as the strongest option.

“That does not mean that it’s the only site,” Cameron said. “When we’re talking about PIC 3 West or we’re talking about a future industrial park, we have to consider where there’s opportunity immediately now or that we can utilize our utility and extension to help with those processes and to advance.”

He stressed that the city is down to one lot in PIC West, with the original PIC in northeast Springfield fully built out in 2006.

Cameron said having funding to secure another site is important, which means the city needs to find ways to partner on infrastructure for properties that are ready for development.

A technical committee has been formed to evaluate sites, Cameron reported, and they are looking at factors like land use, transportation, utilities, environment and fire service.

Amanda Ohlensehlen, the city’s director of workforce and economic vitality, said while work has commenced, a timeline has not been established. The next step is finalizing a site, something that can step up the pace of Springfield’s efforts amid an accompanying state-level prioritization of industrial site readiness to make Missouri more competitive as a whole.

“Knowing a site is ready to go and infrastructure is there, we can have speed to market, which helps make sure the project remains viable,” Ohlensehlen said. “Having a variety of industrial sites helps us win competitive projects.”

Morris Industrial Park
Springfield Business Journal first reported on the leading site, then described as the 57-acre Morris Industrial Park in northeast Springfield, in 2018, when the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission approved a preliminary plat and a rezoning to heavy manufacturing with a conditional overlay.

The site is located on a two-lot subdivision at the 3200 block of East Kearney Street alongside U.S. Highway 65 and at the time was owned by ITC II LLC, the project applicant, SBJ reported. In 2018, that entity was reported to have been organized by Kenneth Morris, according to Missouri secretary of state records, with its address listed at 2023 S. Glenstone Ave., the same location as the Brown Derby Wine Center. The Brown Derby liquor store is the business that gave rise to the Bass Pro Shops, founded inside a Brown Derby by Johnny Morris in 1972.

At that 2018 meeting, P&Z unanimously voted to rezone its southern 33 acres at 2200 N. Belcrest Ave. as heavy manufacturing and approved a conditional overlay. The site, which has remained vacant, is less than two miles from the original PIC.

Greene County assessor records show that a 33-acre site in the subdivision Morris Industrial Park Phase One was sold in December 2023 to Schofield, Wisconsin-based 3G Investment Group LLC.

The assessor’s map shows an L-shaped plot of land with a railway on its south boundary.

Economic vitality priority
City Council kicked off the year committed to pursuing five priorities the body began formulating in September 2025.

Included on the list: economic vitality, a commitment to deploy city assets and identify vacant or underutilized property, in part to stimulate investment.

Ohlensehlen verified that the effort to establish a third PIC is underway.

“We’re thinking about the success of the Partnership Industrial Center model and trying to advance a coordinated strategy to identify future shovel-ready industrial sites,” she said.

Ohlensehlen said the city’s technical committee, pulled together by Cameron, included internal city departments and external partnering agencies and consisted of subject-matter experts. The committee included representatives of city departments, including Environmental Services, Economic Vitality, Planning, Public Works and Fire, alongside members from Greene County, City Utilities and the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

Ohlensehlen described a committee process of strategic scouting.

“Initial work was to analyze various different sites based on some prerequisites, so really, large swaths of contiguous undeveloped land, locations inside or near our urban service area, with a portion of the site that would be adjacent to city limits or allow for annexation,” she said.

Ohlensehlen said the PIC models have proven to be successful in attracting new industrial development to Springfield.

“We’ve had a lot of success, but it’s created this new opportunity as we’re running out of shovel-ready industrial sites,” she said. “We want to make sure we can maintain our competitiveness to attract investment, to create jobs and to help to grow our tax base long-term.”

Another goal is to give local companies an opportunity to grow here, rather than seeking shovel-ready sites elsewhere, according to Ohlensehlen.

“We’d much rather that they continue to invest here in the Springfield region,” she said.

She added that the effort to find a new PIC site for the city is situated within a broader regional approach to attracting economic growth.

“It’s not just a city effort; it’s a coordinated regional strategy with all of our partners,” she said. “We may be a little limited on industrial site inventory within Springfield, there are also available sites throughout the region, and we want to continue to add to that.”

Asked about the cost of developing a new industrial park, Ohlensehlen indicated it is too soon to determine. Pertinent factors would include the size of the site, presence or ready availability of infrastructure and the formation of public-private partnerships.

Cora Scott, the city’s director of public information and civic engagement, said Cameron’s approach has been a forward-looking one.

“He sees it as being more proactive rather than reactive and waiting until an opportunity comes to us,” she said. “It’s building out the infrastructure and capacity in a proactive manner, versus just waiting.”

History of PIC and PIC West
The first Partnership Industrial Center was in the discussion stage when it was catalyzed by the decline of the Springfield Zenith Electronics television factory in 1991, according to SBJ archives.

Once the city’s largest employer, and Zenith’s last facility in the United States, at its peak, Zenith employed some 3,300 workers at its east Springfield plant. In 1992, it shifted most of its manufacturing to Mexico, and it finally closed its local facility and terminated its few remaining jobs in 1994. Staged acquisition by South Korea’s LG Electronics and bankruptcy ended the company in 1999, SBJ reported.

The 360-acre master-planned industrial site known as PIC, situated on East Kearney Street adjacent to Interstate 44, was created by the Partnership for Economic Development, which included the city of Springfield, Greene County, City Utilities of Springfield, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and The Springfield Finance and Development Corp., SBJ archives show.

By 1992, City Utilities acquired the land that is home to PIC, and in 1994, Contico International became the first company to commit to building there.

PIC West was launched in 2001, when the original PIC was half full, according to past SBJ reporting. It was located on 400 acres on West Kearney Street, with close access to Interstate 44 and the Springfield-Branson National Airport.