JMark Business Solutions nets Nixa IT firms

On Jan. 2, the Springfield-based provider of information technology products and services closed on its acquisitions of NetWorks Inc. and NetManage Inc., both based in Nixa. Terms of the sales were not disclosed.

The purchases bring JMark’s employment to 33 from 13 and its roster of clients to about 1,300 from 300, according to JMark majority owner and president Tom Douglas. The three companies sell computer hardware and software and offer network management and troubleshooting services for their clients, mostly within a 200-mile radius of Springfield.

In March, all operations will relocate to a more spacious and high-tech home in The Place at Jordan Creek, a downtown development. JMark currently operates from a 3,000-square-foot office condo at 1976 E. Chestnut Expressway. It’s listing that space for $299,000 through Bill Compere and A.L. “Skip” Liebman of CJR Commercial Group.

Douglas said each entity brings with it unique strengths, such as a more robust sales force.

“We’re excited,” said NetWorks President Casey Mustion. “It’s basically an opportunity to be part of something bigger and better.”

Mustion is majority owner of NetWorks, half owner of NetManage and minority owner of a surveillance business called NetWatch, which wasn’t included in the deal. He and a group of unnamed partners run those sister companies from a 4,000-square-foot office at 227 Downing St. in Nixa.

Mustion said he hadn’t decided whether to continue operating NetWatch from his leased space in Nixa or move it to The Place at Jordan Creek.

Mustion and other NetWorks and NetManage executives will lead a sales team for JMark, according to Douglas. JMark partner Doug Deetz will continue in the role as chief salesman, Douglas added. Other JMark partners are Brenda Blades, Max Roweton and Tom Douglas’ father, Kerry Douglas.

The new place

Meanwhile, renovations are under way at Craig Wagoner’s The Place at Jordan Creek, 601 N. National Ave. JMark officials signed a lease there in November.

“We’re building a networks operation center,” Douglas said. “It’s going to be very NASA-style, if you will.”

JMark will fill 11,500 square feet on the 18,000-square-foot ground floor of the three-story northern building of The Place at Jordan Creek. Plans call for a high-tech, high-security networks-monitoring room with a video wall and 21 workstations, offices, a break room and an employee exercise room, Douglas said.

Butler, Rosenbury and Partners Inc. designed the space, and developer Wagoner is picking up 95 percent of the $150,000 infill tab. Wagoner said the lease rate on the space is $10 per square foot.

“It’s great to have JMark for that space,” said Wagoner, adding that JMark provides his project with a reliable anchor tenant.

Wagoner said an undisclosed college bookstore will move into space in the northwest corner of the building, and a coffee shop and cellular phone store also have expressed interest. Twenty for-sale lofts, two of which are sold, occupy the second and third floors.

Douglas said JMark, founded by James Montgomery in 1988 and purchased by Douglas’ group in 2001, is not finished growing, though he declined to speak about any specific opportunities.

“This won’t be the last,” he said.