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Kinetic Design leaders, from left, Abbye Bobbett, Griffin Bobbett and Adam Kreher stand with SMB partners Jacob Sanders, Matthew Blackwell and Chris Myers at the building the companies purchased together.
Heather Mosley | SBJ
Kinetic Design leaders, from left, Abbye Bobbett, Griffin Bobbett and Adam Kreher stand with SMB partners Jacob Sanders, Matthew Blackwell and Chris Myers at the building the companies purchased together.

‘Heavy fork’ building changes hands in Chesterfield Village

Architecture and accounting firms team up to buy property from Classy Llama

Posted online

Real estate holding company Tenedor Pesado LLC, the recent buyer of a large Chesterfield Village office building, is aptly named.

The company, whose name means “heavy fork” in Spanish, now is the owner of the 2215 W. Chesterfield Blvd. property known for its signature giant fork, said Abbye Bobbett, architect and chief operations officer for Kinetic Design and Development LLC. Kinetic is a partner with Sanders, Myers & Blackwell CPAs LLP in the real estate company that acquired the three-story building, Bobbett said.

“This property fit the bill of exactly what both of us were looking for,” Bobbett said.

Realtor Gerald Zamora of Zamora Real Estate said he brokered the property deal, which closed May 1.

The seller, Springfield digital commerce firm Classy Llama Studios LLC, listed the 25,271-square-foot property for sale at $5 million, according to a listing document provided by Zamora. The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Bobbett said Kinetic would take the first floor, with SMB occupying the third. Classy Llama plans to lease the second floor, she said. The property listing indicates the first floor is 8,977 square feet, while the other two are roughly 8,150 square feet apiece.

Growing companies
Infill work is slated to be conducted as Kinect looks to relocate in the next couple of months, Bobbett said.

Growth at both Kinetic and SMB were factors in the building purchase, company officials say.

“We have known and worked with SMB for a few years now, and we had both outgrown our current facilities,” Bobbett said. “We are excited for the future growth this allows for both of our companies.”

Kinetic opened in September 2022 at 2101 W. Chesterfield Blvd., Ste. A101, near the new building in Chesterfield Village. Bobbett, who co-owns the venture with husband Griffin Bobbett and Adam Kreher, exited Torgerson Design Partners LLC in Ozark to open Kinetic, according to past reporting. Abbye Bobbett is the daughter of Torgerson Design founder John Torgerson.

Kinetic, which offers architectural and interior design work and development services, is a nationwide firm that also operates in Puerto Rico, Bobbett said. Declining to disclose revenue forecasts for the company’s first full year in business, she said company culture is key in the architecture firm’s quick growth.

“The culture we’ve established ... has allowed employees to find a place that helps them thrive as well as foster a sense of trust with our clients that keep them coming back to Kinetic for every project. The culture of our company is founded on the belief that ‘People Are Our Purpose,’” Bobbett said. “We purposely set out to create a firm that demonstrates our commitment to people first and foremost – above accolades or profit margins. We are a relationship-driven team, and it shows in how we partner with our clients.”

Kinetic currently has 23 full-time and three part-time employees with plans to hire an undisclosed number in the near future, Bobbett said. Notable projects to date include an office expansion for Nixon & Lindstrom Insurance, a Bass Pro Shops store in Grand Prairie, Texas, and the second phase of Johnny Morris’ Thunder Ridge Nature Arena in Ridgedale, she said.

Similar to Kinetic, SMB is fairly new to the market, having opened in December 2019 with six people on board, said Managing Partner Jacob Sanders.

“We have already grown to 14 total and have added some great clients, as well as talented young staff,” he said, adding Kinetic is a client of SMB. “While our current office space has served us well, we have known for a while that we would need to find more space for our growth. When the opportunity arose to partner with Kinetic, it seemed like a no-brainer. This building gives us the space we will need for years to come.”

SMB shares office space with James Financial Partners at 909 E. Republic Road, Ste. F-200.

“While we thought our current space left us room to grow, we have already had to eliminate a conference room and cut our employee lounge in half to accommodate additional staff,” Sanders said.

SMB plans to add staff by early next year, including administrative workers, interns and full-time tax and auditing employees, he said. Declining to disclose annual revenue, Sanders said the business that provides individual and small-business income tax preparation and consulting has “seen significant revenue growth in the last couple of years and hope to see this trend continue in the coming years.”

Audits for rural development and low-income housing are growing services, he said, along with tax credit and real estate consulting work.

Kinetic currently resides in around 1,800 square feet, while SMB takes up roughly 60% of the 5,500 square feet shared with James Financial Partners, company officials said.

Building history
The Chesterfield Village property was purchased by Classy Llama in 2018, according to past reporting.

Classy Llama needed less space in the building, said CEO Kurt Theobald.

“Our international expansion has been very successful, which reduced our local office space needs,” he said, declining to disclose an employee count.

The fork that sits in front of the property on its northwest side reportedly is the world’s second-largest fork at 35 feet high, according to tourism attraction website RoadsideAmerica.com. No. 1 is a 37-foot fork in Oregon. But it is known as the world’s heaviest fork, at 11 tons, according to the website.

The Springfield fork was designed by marketing professional Bob Noble, whose ventures previously called the Chesterfield Village building home prior to the purchase by Classy Llama.

The fork originally was created in the late 1990s to sit outside Noble’s short-lived South Glenstone Avenue restaurant called the Greeenhouse Market, according to Springfield News-Leader archives provided by the Springfield-Greene County Library District. The fork was relocated to Noble’s properties in Chesterfield Village in 1999.

The building came up for sale after Noble in 2017 sold Noble Communications Co. to Pittsburgh-based Gatesman Inc., according to past reporting.

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