Office park promotes sustainable commercial development

Rob Murray, vice president of R.B. Murray Co., and Bud Hogan, principal with Hogan Land Title Co., are the principals behind TerraGreen LLC, and TerraGreen, a nine-acre office park located at Blackman and Seminole roads.

General contractor Missouri Supermarket Builders began site work for the development at the end of October.

Of the seven sites available, only one is still available.

R.B. Murray Co. will occupy a 6,000-square-foot building designed with a second phase that would boost space to 9,000 square feet. Architect Matthew Hufft of HufftProjects LLC out of Kansas City and New York, is the architect for the R.B. Murray Co. building, and also worked with the developers for TerraGreen’s sustainable design covenants and restrictions.

Missouri Supermarket Builders is the general contractor for R.B. Murray Co.’s building as well as for the 18,000-square-foot building that will be home to Kansas City-based Olsson Associates’ Springfield office. Olsson Associates, which entered the Springfield market in 2005, also is the engineer for the development and for R. B. Murray Co.’s building.

Other tenants will be Dr. Carrie Arquitt’s Child Style Dental and Bauer Orthodontics, a father-and-son practice owned by Drs. Patrick and William Bauer.

More than just a commercial development, TerraGreen is designed as an example for other developers, aimed at encouraging them to think green, Murray said. TerraGreen is designed with Leadership In Energy and Environmental Design concepts, but as a development, it will not seek LEED certification.

“The real goal behind this is to be able to show that you can build an environmentally sensible and sustainable green building that does not cost any more than a (regular) Class A office building,” Murray said, noting that he’s not trying to compete with his clients who have Class A office space to sell or lease.

While he declined to disclose how much he and Hogan are investing in the development, Murray said building and infill costs for Class A office space generally run between $125 and $135 per square foot.

TerraGreen developers will have space for lease in a 12,000-square-foot building, and Murray said the sixth building with 18,000 square feet is under contract to a single user. Still available is a 14,000-square-foot building, Murray said. All told, Murray said TerraGreen will have roughly 90,000 square feet of Class A office space.

R.B. Murray Co. plans to move to TerraGreen in mid-March, with Olsson Associates to follow in the summer.

“All of the sites will be under construction next year, except Child Style Dental which may take a bit longer,” Murray said.

Each buyer of a parcel in TerraGreen – where roughly 40 percent of the acreage is designated green space – will have the option to use their own design and construction teams, Murray noted, but he said they will have to follow sustainable covenants and restrictions set forth by the developers, even if they decide not to pursue LEED certification.

TerraGreen Tenants

Four companies have signed on as tenants of TerraGreen, a nine-acre green office park planned for east Springfield:

• Bauer Orthodontics

• Child Style Dental

• Olsson Associates

• R.B. Murray Co.[[In-content Ad]]