SBDC: Project wins result in projected $208M in capital investment

Nine wins were tallied in 2024 for project site selection efforts by the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, yielding a projected $208 million capital investment in the area – but the city is poised to do more, members of the Springfield Business Development Corp. learned at their annual meeting yesterday.

A crowd of roughly 440 gathered at University Plaza to hear an update on the Springfield chamber economic development arm’s successful bids to have companies locate or expand in the area. Four of the companies are yet to be named, but the other five companies choosing Springfield were Cold Zone, Keep Supply, John Deere Reman, Youngstown Glove Co. and Creative Modular Construction.

All tallied, the nine investments are projected to yield 382 jobs. It’s a performance that far surpass 2023 totals, with four projects yielding a projected $72.4 million capital investment and 65 employees, according to Jonas Arjes, the chamber’s senior vice president of economic development. In fact, chamber officials note that it is the largest capital outlay in records going back to 2014, a year when 10 projects yielded only roughly half of the 2024 investment at $109.5 million.

In an interview with Springfield Business Journal prior to the event, Arjes said it is his goal to rack up even more wins.

“One of the challenging things is that for us to win, unlike in some scenarios, there’s very little that we have control of,” he said. “All we can control is our attention and effort. We don’t control what the project is and how it might fit.

“Our job is to figure out and do everything we can to make it work.”

Read more about the projects and the Springfield chamber’s economic development efforts in 2024 here.

The keynote speaker for the event, author and growth specialist Ilana Preuss, offered another lens for Springfield’s growth, not through large industries but rather through small manufacturing businesses.

Preuss’ remarks, titled “Making Downtown Shine with Small-Scale Manufacturing,” suggested businesses be encouraged to use small downtown storefronts as the base of small or even cottage-scale manufacturing.

Some of this is already in place, according to Preuss, who toured the city and eyeballed its offerings. She gave the example of Askinosie Chocolate, which manufactures its products at a Commercial Street storefront, or Formed Gallery and its Forming Art Studios, where artists create and sell their wares. Microbreweries, like Mother’s Brewing Co., count as well, according to Preuss.

“These are the hidden gems in every community,” Preuss said, noting she has promoted these in big cities like Atlanta and small towns like San Luis, Colorado, population 600. “Small-scale manufacturing businesses are any business that creates a tangible good that you can replicate or package.”

These could include consumer products, like packaged foods, such as jams, or they could be a component – which Preuss referred to as widgets – for a broader manufacturing operation.

“I call it artisans to advance manufacturing,” she said. “The easy one has hot sauce, handbags and hardware.”

She said such businesses don’t just sell in the community, but they also sell online or through wholesale. Some even provide an amenity in the form of an area where visitors can witness the manufacturing process.

“These businesses fit in your existing business basin downtown, and they can be a business that then grows deep roots and scales and stays in the community and moves into other larger spaces when they need them,” she said. “Because they’re in storefronts, then people have this amazing draw to this area because they want to see it, especially when it’s a consumer-facing shop.”

Preuss offered examples of shared spaces that also fit the model, like a commercial shared kitchen.

“In many cases, this means somebody might be able to go from selling something that they made at home … and selling it at a farmers market to be able to have a product featured at a supermarket,” she said.

They can do this without the expense of building out their own kitchen. It’s a smaller up-front investment, she said, and the entrepreneurs can be given the technical assistance to reach new distributors and broader markets.

As an added plus, Preuss said, this can be a branding opportunity for a community. She gave the example of Columbia, where she led a project to build a corridor called the Loop north of downtown.

“They created a popup park where they had maker markets; they created a commercial kitchen; they changed their zoning,” she said. “It’s all about creating this understanding that this is where things are made, and they’re actually pulling people into the community who want to be a part of this energy.”

Following Preuss’ remarks, Mitch Nitsch, Missouri regional president for Regent Bank, said in an interview that he was excited about the model she described.

“Small towns, even towns the size of Springfield, thrive on their downtown communities,” he said. “We can continue to have a vital downtown that is so important to our economic growth throughout the city.”

Asked what it would take to make this take off, Nitsch said, “Incentives always produce results. I think that’s the reason why our downtown’s as vibrant as it is today, is because we’ve got good partners downtown helping provide financial support to those in need.”

Rusty Worley, executive director of the Downtown Springfield Assocation, expressed enthusiasm for the concept.

“I think it grows on many of the things that we have implemented already,” he said.

As examples, he cited the Efactory as a laboratory to support entrepreneurs, along with the Formed Gallery and the downtown Springfield Farmers Market of the Ozarks.

“We certainly have some facilities that I think could be candidates for this type of use,” he said. “With our culture of entrepreneurship and education, collaboration, it could really work well.”