Commission forwards all arena-site proposals to council

The Springfield Tax Abatement and Tax Increment Financing Commission voted 7-2 to forward proposals from four firms that responded to a request the city issued in late April. That RFP explicitly asked developers to include an office building with at least 100,000 square feet of Class A office space and a four-star hotel with at least 150 rooms.

Branson-based HCW Evergreen LLC, BC Development Co. of Kansas City and John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts LLC each submitted hotel-office tower proposals while Opus Northwest LLC pitched a new corporate headquarters building for anchor tenant BKD LLP accounting firm and a “pad” for a future hotel.

Mary Lilly Smith, the city’s economic development director, told commissioners that each of the firms proposing a hotel-office tower had agreed to split the two components into separate buildings on the 1.7-acre site east of the Springfield Expo Center. This would allow construction to begin immediately on a new office building for BKD, which is nearing the end of its long-term lease in Hammons Tower.

Two commissioners – Dave Coonrod and Sally Hargis – opposed the motion to forward all four development proposals to council. Hargis, vice president of corporate strategy with Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling, said the Opus Northwest proposal failed to meet the RFP criteria. Greene County Presiding Commissioner Coonrod said he was philosophically opposed to “crafting this whole proposal around BKD’s needs.”

In related news, The Arbor motel at 505 St. Louis St. has been demolished. The property – owned by Becky Spence – was offered for a possible land swap in BC Development’s proposal.

Following a May 30 city hearing, Spence was given until early July to make significant repairs to the dilapidated building or raze the structure, said Nick Heatherly, the city’s director of building development services. The motel was cited for several deficiencies under the city’s dangerous, blighted and nuisance building code, he said.

Heatherly said the former motel site should be clear of debris and fenced later this week.

See SBJ’s July 9 issue for more on this story.