Construction builds up Ozarks economy

In the last 25 years, numerous projects have changed the face of the region, adding homes, businesses and attractions to the region.

With those projects have come thousands of jobs for southwest Missourians. While it is difficult to determine how many local jobs there are in the building

industry, a 1997 study by the Salute to Construction Council offered a snapshot of employment for that year.

The study, “The Impact of the Construction Industry on the Springfield Area Economy,” polled 242 southwest Missouri contractor firms in September 1997. Findings showed 6,800 full-time equivalent employees and a total economic output of more than $682,000.

The total economic output took into account employees, payroll, services, utilities, lease payments, purchases and expenditures both directly and indirectly related to construction.

Today, those numbers are likely much higher.

Sheryl Letterman, executive director of the Springfield Contractors Association, said that SCA has 400 member firms that provide more than 10,000 jobs that are either in construction or are in some way affected by the industry.

“It’s significant,” she said of the number of jobs provided or affected by construction, noting that there are many firms in the area that are not SCA members.

The construction industry’s demographics also are changing, accordingi to Elise Crain, project manager at DeWitt & Associates. Women’s roles in construction have evolved from office duties in 1980 to all aspects on the job.

Letterman doesn’t worry about the future of the building industry or the jobs it provides for southwest Missourians, even as technology changes construction along with just about every other career field.

“I don’t think we’ll ever run out of things to build,” Letterman said. “No matter how far advanced we become with our technology and our electronics, the machines are not going to build the bridges. They’re not going to build the buildings. It’s always going to take hands to do that.”

Diversification might be the key to what’s kept the construction industry fairly steady in times when one sector or another was experiencing a downturn.

Historically, Letterman said, even in times when private money for projects was scarce, schools, churches and medical facilities have kept construction going.

In Springfield, the campus of Southwest Missouri State University has grown to accommodate a growing student body, adding new dormitories and new or expanded classroom facilities.

Drury University’s additions included a new science center and student apartments, and Evangel University added new academic space.

On the medical front, Springfield has seen multiple changes, including CoxHealth’s $11.7 million Meyer Center and St. John’s new surgery and emergency centers, both part of St. John’s ongoing $326 million facilities master plan expansion. Doctor’s Hospital’s north Springfield campus has undergone renovations, and a second site was added in Nixa.

In the religious sector, numerous places of worship have been added to the landscape – perhaps most noticeably the changes and additions to Second Baptist Church and the multimillion-dollar James River Assembly of God in Ozark.

The $52 million Wonders of Wildlife, built with public money, provides an educational facility focused on the Ozarks outdoors and its inhabitants.

The WOW campus is now benefiting from private dollars in that Bass Pro founder John L. Morris has stepped in to provide funding for the construction of an IMAX theater.

That’s not to say that private monies have been lean – particularly in recent years, which have seen the addition of Battlefield Marketplace in Springfield, 65 Marketplace in Ozark and Branson Landing – a $420 million public-private development.

In fact, statistics indicate that Branson is in the midst of another building boom. The Landing and other recent developments pushed the city’s construction values for June to more than $10 million and for the first half of 2005 alone, new construction in Branson neared $60 million. Branson seems to be on track for reaching $100 million in new construction for 2005 – a level not achieved since 1993.

In the residential sector, numerous subdivisions have risen out of the countryside, including Rivercut Golf Club and Millwood in Springfield and Saddlebrooke, located between Springfield and Branson.