Large retail developments shaping future of Springfield metro area

A retail development boom at the Sunshine Street and West Bypass intersection, long home to a Walmart Supercenter, may give a glimpse into the Springfield metro area’s future, according to local development officials.

Curtis Jared, who is developing the new Sunshine Towne Center that’s anchored by Target at the southeast corner of the intersection in west Springfield, said sparse development-ready land within city limits is pushing newer projects to the city’s edges.

“There’s not a whole lot of room left to grow, so they’re growing into those adjacent communities,” he said. “In the next 10 years, not just that area of town, but Ozark, Republic, Nixa, Strafford – everything’s going to grow so much together that it’s almost going to feel like a giant metro at that point.”

Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Morrow agreed with that assessment.

“Business doesn’t really focus on boundaries on the map,” he said. “They really look more at opportunities that are available.”

Jared, who is president and CEO of Jared Enterprises Inc., said he’s preparing for increasingly blurring city boundaries with investment.

“I’ve got real estate holdings in almost all of those locations,” he said. “Those areas just right outside the Springfield city limits, those are your big growth areas.”

Morrow pointed, as well, to Partnership Industrial Center West, in which the chamber is a partner organization. The industrial park, located on the edge of the city to the northwest, has seen recent growth with projects from Cold Zone, Springfield Glass Co. and others.

“Partnership Industrial Center West has had five new projects announced in the last 18 months,” he said.

Project report
At Springfield Plaza, located on the other side of Walmart Supercenter from Sunshine Towne Center, recent tenant news marks continued growth for the development.

Dutch Bros Coffee, Jersey Mike’s Subs, AT&T and Great Clips are on board for a planned 4,500-square-foot retail center at a roughly 1-acre parcel located between Taco Bell and Plaza Tire Service in a Springfield Plaza outlot. Rockford, Illinois-based RSCC Group is the developer and general contractor for the retail center, with construction scheduled to start soon, said company President and CEO Nathan Heinrich. He estimated a fall completion date for the retail center.

It’s the first development in Springfield for RSCC Group, which also operates Rockford Structures Construction Co.

“You’ve got a fantastic city there in Springfield,” Heinrich said. “We’re excited to be there.”

Tom Rankin of SVN/Rankin Co. and Rankin Development LLC is the co-developer of Springfield Plaza. He said the retail center with Dutch Bros is the last Springfield Plaza outlot facing Sunshine Street.

Rankin said the success of Springfield Plaza, anchored by retail offerings such as Ross Dress for Less, Burlington and Michaels, comes down to location.

“Retail follows rooftops,” he said. “That area, when we started, had probably the highest concentration of new housing permits than any other part of the county.”

Additionally, the long-established Walmart Supercenter represented an opportunity for other retailers to follow suit, Rankin said.

“Retail follows retail. They like the synergy,” he said. “Things just continue to snowball.”

Indeed, across Sunshine from Springfield Plaza is Menards, which opened in 2018. Also north of Sunshine is the likes of Casey’s and Take 5 Car Wash, and a new Chick-fil-A restaurant is being added, as well.

More growth is likely at Springfield Plaza, too, as Rankin said less than half of a potential 106 acres have been developed to this point.

“We’ve got approximately 60 acres left that is on West Bypass and Seminole [Street] and McCurry Street,” he said, referring to land south of Springfield Plaza’s primary retail center that holds Ross Dress for Less. “They’re for sale. We would develop if we had the user.”

Meanwhile, Sunshine Towne Center is slated for completion within 12 months, said Jared.

First up is Springfield’s second Olive Garden restaurant, which Jared’s commercial real estate business Jared Commercial & Management LLC recently announced would open on June 23.

Other Sunshine Towne Center tenants on board include BluCurrent Credit Union and Wendy’s, according to Jared Commercial & Management’s online property brochure for the development. Those offerings are slated to be located in the far northeast corner of Sunshine Towne Center, east of Olive Garden.

Jared also is developing a 33,000-square-foot retail center, which will have 10-15 users, at Sunshine Towne Center. Construction is scheduled to start soon, pending permit approvals from the city.

The 148,000-square-foot Target store was the original feature of Sunshine Towne Center announced when development plans came into the public eye in late 2023 and early 2024. Past Springfield Business Journal reporting put the price tag of Sunshine Towne Center at roughly $60 million.

Jared was unsure when the Target store would open, but he noted it would be within that 12-month period.

“I think it’s turned out to be a great development – great for that area of town,” Jared said in a recent SBJ article. “I see it spurring on a lot more development around it, and that’s going to be good for the community.”

Ozark opportunity
The outward push isn’t confined to Springfield’s city limits.

South of Springfield, in Ozark, developer Brad Thessing of Thessing Commercial Properties LLC started moving dirt about two weeks ago on the roughly 30-acre Ozark Marketplace. The development is on land just east of U.S. Highway 65 across South Street/Missouri Route 14 from the Ozark Town Center, the site of Walmart, Lowe’s and smaller retailers, and it’s on the far south edge of Ozark.

Thessing said Dutch Bros, Aldi, McDonald’s, Plaza Tire Service and Casey’s are among tenants on board. He said he’s in negotiation with other national tenants for the retail center, which is currently about halfway leased.

“Aldi is hoping to be open by the end of the year,” Thessing said.

For Ozark Marketplace, access to the necessary infrastructure to support development attracted him to build on what formerly was farmland.

“The traffic is there. The income level is there,” he said. “It’s going to create a lot of jobs in Christian County and revenue for the city.”

Thessing estimated Ozark Marketplace would generate more than $50 million in additional sales tax revenue. As farmland, the property’s tax benefit to the city of Ozark was minimal, he said.

“It creates all new opportunity,” Thessing said.