Developer alleges unfair process for arena site

The firm’s local representative, Becky Spence, spoke at Monday night’s Springfield City Council meeting on behalf of BC Development, one of four companies that responded to a May request for proposals for the site.

BC proposed a deal that included a land swap with the former site of the Arbor Motel, 505 St. Louis St., which Spence owns.

Spence said that when the city requested additional information from the four developers in July, BC called various city departments to gather information from them and was told that the city had already reached a verbal commitment with John Q. Hammons, one of the other developers in the running, and that the process was “a done deal.”

The firm’s concerns were laid out in an Oct. 3 letter to city Economic Development Director Mary Lilly Smith and the council.

“There does not seem to be a desire by … the city to enter into open and fair competition for the development of these projects,” BC Development principal Richard Baier wrote in the letter. “BC Development continues to be interested in … these potential projects; however, we must be assured that our proposal will be seriously considered.”

Baier was not at the meeting due to a scheduling conflict, Spence said.

Smith agreed that BC has not formally withdrawn from the process; she instead described the firm as “nonresponsive.”

The city, Smith said, tried at least three times to contact BC through its Kansas City attorney since its request for additional information, and the city received no response until BC sent its letter.

“We believe that we have fulfilled our responsibility to contact them and have had sufficient time to enter into negotiations with them,” Smith told the council.

Mayor Tom Carlson reminded everyone in attendance that the process is far from complete.

“The reality is nothing has been presented to the city council to consider at this point,” Carlson said. “Everyone’s acting like this is a done deal. We haven’t even had anything to vote on yet.”

The other two developers who submitted proposals for the downtown site were Kansas City-based Opus Northwest LLC, which pitched a headquarters building for accounting firm BKD LLP and a “pad” for a future hotel, and Branson-based HCW Evergreen LLC, which withdrew last month, citing Hammons’ lease on the expo center as an obstacle.

See SBJ’s Oct. 15 issue for more from the Oct. 8 council meeting.