O'Reilly Auto breaks ground for new HQ

After adding 1,500 U.S. stores, including locations in 12 new states, all in the last 12 months, O'Reilly Automotive Inc. is turning its attention back home.

The country's third-largest aftermarket auto parts retailer quietly began site work last month just south of its Springfield corporate office at 233 S. Patterson Ave. for a new 117,000-square-foot headquarters building.

Bulldozers are stirring up 10.5 acres of dirt to install storm-water drainage and other infrastructure, and construction should wrap up by March 2010, according to Charlie Downs, vice president of O'Reilly real estate and store expansion.

The groundbreaking comes on the cusp of the one-year anniversary of O'Reilly's July 2008 acquisition of Phoenix-based CSK Auto Corp. The $1 billion deal added 1,345 CSK stores to the O'Reilly chain - although many are yet to be rebranded - and a 15 percent increase in corporate staff in Springfield.

Many of the new hires have been shoehorned into other O'Reilly offices including the Frisco building at 3253 E. Chestnut Expressway, the former Blue Cross building at 3524 E. Sunshine St. and additional facilities on Patterson and Barnes avenues.

"When we acquired CSK, we ran out of room almost immediately," Downs said. "We just kind of exploded here in the last 12 months."

When the new headquarters opens, it will house about 600 employees, and another 200 will be in the current Patterson facilities, which comprise 76,000 square feet. The move will bring all of O'Reilly's approximately 800-member Springfield corporate staff onto one campus, spokesman Mark Merz said. After the transition, the company will consider exiting some of its leased space elsewhere, he added.

O'Reilly also plans to move jobs from CSK's former Phoenix headquarters to the new building within the next year, according to Downs.

Some CSK employees will be given the option to relocate; those who don't will be replaced locally as new positions and vacancies become available.

O'Reilly is serving as lead developer on the project, and Springfield firm Buddy Webb & Co. is the architect. Kansas City-based Jones Development Co.

LLC and Kansas-based Crossland Construction Co. Inc. are working together as general contractor. Company officials would not release the project cost. They said the building is designed so that O'Reilly can easily add 50,000 square feet.

Aside from a dip below $25 a share in fourth-quarter 2008 - just as the economic recession became official - O'Reilly stock (Nasdaq: ORLY) has been marching upward on Wall Street since the CSK acquisition. Shares set a 52-week high of $40.50 on April 30 and closed at $38.08 June 30. In March, O'Reilly replaced offshore drilling contractor Noble Corp. on the elite S&P 500 index.

The company reported $3.58 billion in sales last year, up 42 percent from 2007. Sales climbed 80 percent in the first quarter compared to first-quarter 2008, and officials expect diluted earnings per share to end the year between $1.89 and $1.93. Companywide, O'Reilly employed 42,293 and had 3,337 stores as of March 31.

The growth puts the company within 68 stores of the competitor holding the No. 2 spot in the country - Advance Auto Parts Inc., which had 3,405 stores as of March 31. Memphis-based AutoZone Inc. is the largest auto parts retailer in the U.S., with 4,172 stores as of May 9.[[In-content Ad]]