Keep Supply cuts ribbon for new downtown HQ 

Roughly a year after moving downtown to temporary space, a Springfield-based industrial parts and equipment distributor is settling into its newly renovated 34,000-square-foot headquarters. 

Keep Supply held a July 16 open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Springfield Area of Commerce to mark the opening of its facility that fills most of two floors at a 117 Park Central Square building. Approximately 150 of the company’s 160 employees work in the new headquarters after Keep Supply moved last year from its prior home at 601 N. National Ave.  

In remarks prior to cutting the ribbon outside its headquarters, Keep Supply President Drake Hughes said he and other company leadership looked around for a while before agreeing to lease space in the downtown building owned by Davis Properties.  

“It’s hard to find a place that fits Keep really well, that fits the culture, that isn’t too corporate-y,” he said. “But this is pretty much the best thing we could ask for is to be in a space like this, in an area that’s got a lot of energy that matches our culture.” 
  
Keep Supply distributes industrial refrigeration parts and equipment for food, beverage, chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturers domestically and internationally.  

BP Builders LLC was general contractor for the renovations with Esterly Schneider & Associates Inc. as project architect and Andrea Nesbitt Designs LLC handling interior design.  

Hughes thanked the Keep Supply staff for its willingness to jump through so many hoops amid the company’s multiple moves in recent years. 

“Thank you for moving into temporary space, being in an area where we got overcrowded over time,” he said of the near year-long wait to occupy the renovated space.  

Extensive work required for heating, ventilation and air conditioning was a significant component of the project’s long runway, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The company declined to disclose renovation costs or terms of its five-year lease with Davis Properties.  

During the July 16 event, Ben Vickers, business development manager with the Springfield chamber, recalled connecting a couple years ago with Lindsay Bauer, Keep Supply’s director of people and culture. 

“During that conversation, I had a crazy idea, and that crazy idea was to do a tour of this building, which at the time was occupied by Missouri State [University],” he said. “We happened to know that Missouri State would be leaving within the year and we would have a massive empty building on the square.” 

That eventually led to Keep Supply and Davis Properties working out lease terms, which resulted in renovations to the building. Vickers said the building hadn’t been updated since the 1970s. 

“I want to thank the leadership team at Keep – Drake and Lindsay and everybody who was involved – for trusting me to at least just walk through the building and just try to cast the vision of what this means for downtown,” Vickers said.  

The headquarters opening comes a few months after Keep Supply debuted its new 25,000-square-foot fulfillment center in the Republic area. The company has operated at the 3570 E. Sawyer Road facility since February, according to past SBJ reporting. 

Hughes said Keep Supply’s growth is far from finished. Even as the company nearly doubled its footprint in the move from National Avenue to its new headquarters, expansion within the space is already in progress. He said the company plans to eventually occupy the building’s entire third floor and has the right of first refusal with Davis Properties for additional space on the first floor. 

“We’re really excited to be downtown,” he said. “We want to continue to grow here, continue to expand here and continue to add to the economics of the downtown area.” 

An expanded version of this article is scheduled to be published in Springfield Business Journal’s July 27 print edition.