Construction gears up on Jack Henry's Springfield campus

Excavation work for the new Jack Henry & Associates Inc. campus in southeast Springfield began in earnest last month, and if winter obliges, concrete footings for the first two office buildings could be in place by mid-January.

The pair of three-story buildings and adjacent parking represent the first phase of Jack Henry's consolidated Springfield campus, which is gradually taking shape on a sloped site just east of the U.S. Highway 65/Battlefield Road interchange. The address of the office complex will be 3725 E. Battlefield Road, according to the city.

The Monett-based vendor of software products for financial institutions and corporations currently has employees spread across four leased locations in south Springfield, said Scott Whisman, Jack Henry's general manager of corporate services. Jack Henry's headquarters, however, will remain on a 144-acre site in Monett, Whisman stressed.

In June 2007, publicly traded Jack Henry (Nasdaq: JKHY) purchased 36.5 acres of undeveloped farmland at the northwest corner of East Battlefield and Blackman roads from Larry and Penny Childress. Some 16 months later, dozers and trackhoes are rumbling across a field of freshly turned dirt.

Whisman said Monett-based Vaughn Dirtworks LLC has been contracted to perform the grading work, which includes the blasting and removal of a "fairly significant" amount of subterranean limestone. That limestone, Whisman said, is being used as fill elsewhere on the construction site.

Kansas City-based JE Dunn Construction Co. is the general contractor for the project's first phase, which will offer a combined 150,000 square feet for up to 400 Jack Henry employees. Springfield-based Casey Architecture is the project architect.

Whisman declined to provide an estimated total project cost, due to a pending review of bids recently submitted by subcontractors.

"It's a sizeable project, and we want to make sure we can get everything down to the penny before we release anything price-wise," he said. "It's all within budget."

The city's Building Development Services Department has been reviewing Jack Henry's building permit applications since early September, said Rick Garner, an engineer with the department. The estimated cost of each of the first two buildings is $4.4 million, according to those applications.

If all goes according to schedule, contractors should be able to pour concrete within 60 days, Whisman said. Once the foundations are in place, workers will erect steel exoskeletons for the buildings, but Whisman noted that steel work is at the mercy of the weather.

Predictions that Springfield might be in for another rough winter have Jack Henry officials hoping for the best - but preparing for the worst. Higher-than-normal precipitation is expected from December through February in southwest Missouri, Oklahoma and much of Arkansas, according to a seasonal outlook from the National Weather Service.

Despite some delays related to record-breaking rainfall earlier in the year, company officials are still optimistic the Springfield campus will be ready for occupancy by spring or early summer 2010.

"I think we're still talking probably 18 months - best case - before we're in a building over there," said Jack Henry CEO Jack Prim. "Nothing moves as fast I think it ought to, but it has nothing to do with the economy or with credit. We're basically paying cash for it, so that's not an issue."

Jack Henry decided to build its own campus in southeast Springfield after a lengthy hunt for leased office space came up empty, Whisman said, adding that few buildings were big enough to accommodate several hundred employees. Building to suit at Battlefield and Blackman also offered convenient access to employees living in Springfield and surrounding areas, he said.

"The south side made perfect sense because that's where a majority of employees would live," Whisman said.

A centralized location also means the company will no longer have to replicate internal operating systems at its four leased locations, Whisman said, noting that "one campus greatly increases our efficiencies."

Prim said staffing levels in Springfield should remain relatively stable after Jack Henry's local employees move to the new campus in 2010.

"We don't have major hiring plans, but what we have found is that some of the positions that we're trying to hire for are easier to recruit people in Springfield than in Monett," he said.

The second phase of Jack Henry's Springfield campus will include a third building similar to those about to be built on the site. That building would be situated on the northwest portion of the property, Whisman said.[[In-content Ad]]