Innovation Center organizers delay plans

Fred Marty, Southwest Missouri State University vice president of administrative services, told council that construction is expected to begin in December, with a final completion date in April 2007. Initially, organizers planned a January groundbreaking, with an estimated summer 2006 completion date.

Marty said the construction schedule has been pushed back while the university and the city wait for documentation and formal approval from the federal government. He added that the project could also be enhanced by a new monetary gift.

“We’re going to do more extensive construction,” he said. “We anticipate being able to talk about a gift in the next 30 days or so that should let us do another, let’s say, $2.5 million in work.”

That new gift would add to an already $15 million project budget. New design estimates call for $16 million to $18 million in construction, Marty said.

The university will have the general contractor file a notice with architect Sapp Design Associates Architects PC to proceed in early February, after which bids can be accepted. Springfield design firms Sapp Design Associates and Butler, Rosenbury & Partners are partnering with project architect Ross & Baruzzini Inc. of St. Louis.

The center, to be housed in the former Missouri Farmers Association building at 524 N. Boonville Ave., will focus primarily on work for national security and defense, including the creation of hazardous materials sensors and other carbon-based technologies. A collaboration of SMSU, the city and national corporations, the innovation center is expected to employ up to 100 when complete.

It will be constructed in three phases.

Phase I – with an estimated cost of $10.85 million – is funded by $7.64 million in federal grant money and $3.21 million in revenue bonds. Phase II cost estimates range from $5.5 million to $6.9 million.

A third section of the project, called phase II-A, comprises one building. Marty said parts of that building have been deemed structurally unsafe and will require partial demolition. The extent and cost of that work has not been determined.

Organizer Ryan Giedd, executive director for SMSU’s Center for Applied Science and Engineering, which will operate in the center, said that the national companies he is working with see Springfield as an attractive option because of the center’s unique structure.

“What we count on is partnering,” he said. “We build an infrastructure that supports industry, and then we say, ‘We have this infrastructure here, come in and bring your scientists.’ And they have the expertise in the area to work with us. The infrastructure is very expensive, and if we can get it developed here in Springfield, it becomes a magnet for these companies.”

Also at the luncheon, council accepted an interest rate bid for the $3.95 million in general obligation bonds it plans to issue for city sanitary sewer improvements.

The low bid, 3.65 percent, came from Citigroup Global Markets. The city received an AA bond rating; AAA is the highest rating possible, and D is the lowest. The use of bonds for the improvements was approved at council’s Jan. 10 meeting. The issue will go to a citywide vote in April.

Other news

At its Jan. 24 regular meeting, City Council rezoned more than 40 acres of land across the city in three separate rezoning requests.

• A 29-acre plot of land on South Mentor Avenue changed from a manufactured housing community district to a planned development district.

The rezoning places a cap on the number of mobile homes allowed. The cap – 152 mobile homes – matches the number currently on the property. The rezoning alleviates a problem that came up when council remapped the city in 1995.

• Nine acres on Valley Water Mill Road near Stewart Street were rezoned to a low-density multifamily residential district. The land, recently annexed into the city, was rezoned to bring it into the city zoning system.

• Approximately 1.5 acres at 2516 West Atlantic St., formerly zoned as heavy

manufacturing, changed to a single-family residential district to match its current use. Much of the land in the area was zoned for manufacturing in the 1950s, though most of it has not been used for that purpose.

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