Council considers bond measure for Andy’s HQ

Springfield City Council held a first reading and public hearing on a measure to issue $32 million in industrial development bonds to Andy’s Frozen Custard at its meeting July 13, with a vote set for July 27.

The bond proposal would use Chapter 100 of Missouri law. The idea is that the city takes ownership of the subject property at the corner of East Division Street and North LeCompte Road for the 25 years of the agreement so that the company can take advantage of the city’s tax-exempt status to build 43,200 square feet of office space to be spread among three buildings, plus a 9,600-square-foot industrial warehouse.

Matt Schaefer, Springfield’s assistant director of Economic Vitality, offered a summary of real property tax impact from the proposal over the bond period. Without the project, the property would generate $98,835 for taxing jurisdictions. With the project, the company would remit payments in lieu of taxes amounting to $1.6 million in the same period, a figure that is abated $3.7 million from total projected taxes of $5.3 million.

The taxing jurisdiction that would receive the largest amount of revenue from PILOTs is Springfield Public Schools, which stands to receive $73,474 if there is no project but $974,847 in PILOT payments if there is a project, according to city staff estimates presented by Schaefer. If there were no abatement, the school district would receive $3.3 million in taxes from the development as proposed, but Andy’s officials told Springfield Business Journal in past reporting that the headquarters project is contingent upon it receiving the incentive.

Other taxing jurisdictions that would receive heightened revenue through PILOT payments are the city of Springfield, the Springfield-Greene County Library District, Ozarks Technical Community College, Greene County general revenue, Greene County road and bridge fund, senior services, Abilities First and the state of Missouri. There is also a commercial surtax.

One issue that arose during council discussion was the desire by some members to be engaged earlier in the process of negotiating tax incentives.

A real estate attorney for Andy’s, Curt Peterson of Kansas City-based Polisinelli PC, said the company had been working with the city for about six months to put the bond package together.

Councilmember Brandon Jenson expressed the desire for council to be brought into the process earlier.

“We didn’t even find out about this until at our last meeting when the resolution was brought forward, and now there’s a fully-built-out package ready for our approval,” he said.

Jenson was echoing a concern voiced by Councilmember Abe McGull, who told Schaefer that the Chapter 100 bond program encourages business development in the community.

“We’re on the back end of this,” McGull said. “By the time it gets to us, all the terms and conditions have already been met.”

McGull said the 25-year term could have instead been a 20- or 15-year agreement.

“We have to set policies to give you, staff, direction, instead of us being on the back end,” he said. “If it’s more than 10-year abatement, then it should go to the Finance Committee for further discussion to see if the terms can be worked out with the developer.”

He expressed approval for the cost-benefit analysis breaking down PILOT revenue from the project.

“That’s the kind of cost-benefit analysis that we should do on every project in this city,” McGull said. “I think it’s important for the citizens to see that so they know.”

He said he was voting for the proposal, but he wants to see changes where staff are given direction in the future.

Councilmember Craig Hosmer agreed, though he noted that council has an opportunity before the next reading of the bill and the subsequent vote to make changes.

The proposal by Andy’s would maintain 54 jobs and add another 16 – figures CEO Andy Kuntz told SBJ were conservative, with more hires anticipated. Maintaining and establishing those positions are a condition of the bond agreement, with the requirement that the jobs are valued at one-and-a-half times the county average wage. The proposal as submitted estimates that the 16 new positions would earn an average of $95,000.

Kuntz spoke to council to discuss his company’s history, and he expressed a desire to stay in Springfield. Jenson asked if he was willing to delay consideration of the proposal to consider a campus-style development within the downtown area, and Kuntz said he was not.

On another area of concern expressed by Jenson, Kuntz said he did intend to use local contractors in the work. Jenson had asked for the use of local contractors to be included as a provision of the agreement, but it is not included in the terms as they currently stand.

City manager contract
Council voted 8-0 to renew the contract of City Manager David Cameron.

The contract grants the state’s highest-paid city manager a 3% cost-of-living increase for fiscal 2027 for a base salary of $360,500.

The 8-0 vote, with Councilmember Derek Lee absent, was preceded by comments from Jenson, who was vocal in his opposition to Cameron’s selection in the May 2025 council meeting prior to his hire.

Jenson said at the time that when he agreed to a then-$350,000 salary for the next city manager, he had expected to attract a more experienced candidate from out of the Springfield market. The salary being offered was 31% above that of Cameron’s predecessor, Jason Gage.

Jenson said he was wrong about Cameron.

“About a year ago whenever we were considering first approving your contract, I was probably one of the staunchest critics, and I launched a very long diatribe about the concerns that I had,” Jenson said. “Since that time, I’ve been really, incredibly impressed by the work that you’re doing.”

He said there is still work to do internally and externally, but his opinion has changed.

“I feel it’s important for both the folks that I represented in that past vote and for folks today to say that I was unequivocally wrong in my vote whenever I voted against your contract,” he said.

At the start of the meeting, Cameron offered his regular city manager’s report, describing goals for the city’s 120-day delay in data center consideration, with two public input sessions tentatively planned for August, and giving a progress report on the rental inspection pilot program underway in the West Central neighborhood, along with other updates.

Jenson responded to the report by thanking Cameron for his biweekly reports, including multipage written reports that are available to the public.

“It’s all really good information,” he said. “I refer to it to answer questions that residents share with me. There’s information in there that can answer a lot of council’s questions that we oftentimes ask, and so I would just encourage every single person to read those documents.”

Zoning repeal
Council voted 8-0 to repeal its May decision to rezone 7.64 acres at the northeast corner of Walnut Lawn Street and Maryland Avenue, and it subsequently voted not to put a referendum regarding the repeal on the Nov. 3 citywide ballot.

On June 3, residents of the High Meadow East neighborhood to the north of the proposed development, previously named The Reserve at Medical Mile, successfully submitted a petition calling for an election to repeal the rezoning measure, but the council repeal makes the ballot issue moot.

Following the submission of the referendum petition, developer BiBi Oaks LLC issued a revised plan for the site, reducing the number of units to 160 from an original 198 and lowering the height of the building – one of the sticking points for neighbors, who resisted a four-story building being erected without transition alongside a neighborhood of single-family homes.

The revised plan, called 33 Maryland, is two stories and fits within the existing zoning classification for the site.

Other action items

• The North Broadway Community Improvement District was approved. The 27-year agreement centers on the 1.4-acre Broadway Cottage Courtyard planned development, a project of the Drew Lewis Foundation Inc., located in the area of North Broadway Avenue and West Central Street. Funds from 1.5% sales and use taxes collected in the district are intended to cover services like landscaping, mowing, trash services and general maintenance, plus improvements like signage, planting of trees and stormwater infrastructure.

• A $5.3 million contract with Axon Enterprise Inc. was OK’d to provide body-worn cameras for the Springfield Police Department, with funding coming from unappropriated salaries and federal forfeitures.

• Funds from the city’s hotel/motel tax were distributed to the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau Inc., operating as Visit Springfield, Missouri, in the amount of $3.7 million and to the Greater Springfield Area Sports Commission Inc. and the Springfield Regional Arts Council Inc. at $365,000 each. By agreement, the CVB receives 47% of tax proceeds, while the other two organizations receive 4.5%.

• A $10 million grant application was authorized for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing Program. Bob Atchley, principal planner for the city, said the application is competitive, with roughly 10 no-match awards provided annually throughout the nation. The application would allow private ownership of affordable housing units and would include scattered-site missing-middle housing, he said.

• Council OK’d a $100,000 Surface Transportation Block Grant agreement to fund regional transportation planning costs in keeping with the city’s transportation master plan.

• Council considered a measure to allow drive-thru marijuana facilities to operate until 1:30 a.m. instead of closing at 10 p.m. at the request of V3 MO Vending 5 LLC, with a vote set for July 27.