Missouri Furniture breaks ground for new Ozark store

Drawn to the area because of a healthy local home-building market, Missouri Furniture broke ground March 6 for its first southwest Missouri store in Ozark's 65 Marketplace Development, according to a press release from the company. The 25-year-old, family-owned company has been serving Springfield from its stores in central Missouri. The new home boom prompted the retailer to have a store in the Springfield area.

According to the Greene County Planning Department, 916 planned home permits were approved in 2001 the most in the past 15 years. A total of 236 permits were approved January of this year more than a quarter of what was issued in all of 2001.

Also, the release stated, the population of the city of Ozark has jumped 120 percent in the past 10 years and now exceeds 10,000. In the past four years, Ozark has issued an average of 211 new home permits.

Missouri Furniture's Ozark location is expected to open this fall. It will join other companies PriceCutter Super-market, Liberty Bank and several specialty retailers in the 72-acre, mixed-use property being developed by Springfield-based S.L. Stinnett Co. and TriStar Business Communities of St. Louis.