Planning for Growth: What Business Leaders Need to Know About Infrastructure (Sponsored Content)

As Springfield’s economic development continues its upward trajectory, business leaders face a critical question: How do we position our organizations for sustainable growth? According to Gregg Scholtens, Vice President at KCI Construction, the answer lies in early planning, strategic thinking, and understanding the long lead times inherent in today’s construction environment.

“Business leaders really need to be probably in the 24-to-36-month window of planning,” Scholtens explains. “From the time you engage a design partner to when you’re moving into a new facility is easily a two-year process.” For companies accustomed to faster timelines, this extended horizon requires a fundamental shift in strategic planning.

According to Scholtens, the construction landscape has fundamentally changed in recent years. “We still have some supply chain challenges, especially with our large mechanical electrical products,” Scholtens notes. “Large electrical distribution systems, large generators, certain pieces of HVAC equipment are still what I call an extremely long lead items, like 12 plus months depending on the piece of equipment.”

Scholtens explains that for projects that typically run only 12 months from start to finish, this creates a planning imperative. Equipment must be ordered before ground is broken, requiring early collaboration between all stakeholders.

Perhaps nowhere is the benefit of early planning more evident than in KCI’s recent healthcare projects. Both of the recent CoxHealth projects, the Ozarks Rehabilitation Hospital and the Meyer Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospital expansion, came online approximately six months ahead of traditional design-then-build timelines.

“Speed to market for a healthcare client is huge,” Scholtens says. For the Ozarks Rehabilitation project, scheduled to open in early 2026 instead of late spring or summer 2026, those extra six months of revenue generation represent significant financial impact. “You can only imagine what kind of money that’s generating if they get it six months early.

“The Meyer Orthopedic project delivered similar results. “Cox had already hired the surgeons that were coming to work for them, and they needed a place for them to start doing their work,” Scholtens explains. “We turned over the new ORs in September.”

Scholtens says advance business projection and planning must happen in tandem with project planning. When asked about the most frequent errors he sees businesses make, Scholtens points to a critical miscalculation: “People tend to pigeonhole themselves into a certain expectation of growth, and so they wake up and find themselves two or three years later with a facility that doesn’t fit their needs.”

His advice? Think bigger. “If you think 10,000 square feet is going to be enough, build 20-30% more than that,” he says, acknowledging the financial constraints while emphasizing the cost of getting it wrong. “I understand there’s a dollar value tied back to that, but companies have to recognize their future growth rather than just seeing it through the lens of what they look like today.”

As business leaders evaluate whether to build new, renovate, or relocate, Scholtens emphasizes that ROI calculations must account for more than immediate needs. Location constraints, property size, and operational logistics all factor into the equation. “A lot of folks are just locked in place by either size of facility or size of the piece of property itself,” he notes.

Seizing the opportunity for growth requires business leaders to start planning now, not when space constraints become critical. According to Scholtens, “In today’s construction environment, the companies that thrive will be those that think furthest ahead.”

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