Clever gains $1.4M strip center, Murfin's Market

Via King Built Properties, his partnership with businessman Jeremy Loftin, King is bringing a $1.4 million retail center to the town of Clever.

The 12,000-square-foot Marketplace Station will adjoin a new 17,000-square-foot Murfin’s Market slated to break ground in the next few weeks.

Located on State Highway 14 between Ozark and Marionville, Clever has experienced the kind of population growth for which Christian County has become famous. In the 1990 census, Clever’s population was 580; as of 2006, it was estimated at 1,281.

“Clever has just grown drastically,” King said. “It’s doubled its population with no commercial growth.”

That’s a situation that will be remedied by year’s end with the opening of a new, $2 million Murfin’s Market. While owner Chuck Murfin Sr. had hoped to open in time for Thanksgiving, wet weather has set the schedule back.

Construction on King’s strip center will begin later this year and be complete by summer 2009. While the strip center and market are separately owned, a contractual agreement will allow King to attach Marketplace Station to Murfin’s.

The new retail developments will be built directly across the highway from Clever’s new $8.5 million high school and in front of the 65-acre King’s Gate subdivision, a King Built Properties residential project. The new commercial structures will occupy approximately two acres; three one-acre lots are still available.

Murfin’s Market

The Murfin’s Market in Clever, built on land purchased from King, will be the Ozark-based chain’s fourth location, and it features a new design.

“It’s going to have more of a modern façade,” said Project Manager Jason Gundy, an architect with Bates & Associates Architects Inc. The new look includes a metal-panel façade, metal-panel canopies and radius columns. Harold Gray of Missouri Supermarket Builders is the general contractor for Murfin’s. A contractor for the strip center has not yet been selected, according to King.

Grocery chain founder Murfin said the Clever store will offer all the amenities Murfin’s is known for, including a deli, bakery and full-service meat counter, but it will also include energy-efficient features.

For example, lunch meat and bagged vegetables will be in closed cold cases instead of the traditional but inefficient open ones, and Murfin’s is seeking out other energy-efficient equipment, Murfin said.

“We’re excited about growing and continue to look for opportunities for our stores,” said Chuck Murfin Jr., company vice president. “We’re not the typical grocery chain, just a small, family-operated business. So we carefully look at our locations and sites and try to go into towns that sort of fit our personality, if you will.”

Besides adding a new store in Clever, Murfin’s also is expanding its existing store in Willard to about 33,000 square feet.

Retail development impact

King is deep in negotiating leases with restaurants and service businesses for the Clever strip center, among them Family Pharmacy. Space will be customized to meet individual tenant needs. Marketplace Station will have eight tenant bays, including two with 2,500 square feet.

With fuel prices at crisis levels, King said, the convenience of the new commercial development will be a major benefit to Clever area residents.

“People just have nowhere to go,” he said. “They’re having to travel to Nixa or Republic or Springfield for all their service needs.”

King noted that while commercial growth benefits shoppers, it also boosts the community as a whole by generating tax revenues for town government and the school district. He noted that new developments also could draw in more residents.

“With this new school and with this commercial development, I think it makes Clever a much more attractive place to live,” King said.