Snyder Construction approved for MSU contract

Snyder Construction Group this week got the nod as the general contractor for a multimillion-dollar Missouri State University project.

MSU President Clif Smart confirmed the board voted Nov. 18 to accept Snyder Construction Group's low bid of $6.4 million for the Springfield Public Schools magnet school funded by businessperson Bill Darr. Staff had recommended approval of the bid prior to the vote.

The project calls on a 15,100-square-foot building to be completed in time for the spring semester at MSU's William H. Darr Agricultural Center. The building would be owned by MSU and used by SPS as an agricultural magnet school. Arkifex Studios LLC previously won the architecture contract.

Darr and the Darr Family Foundation in the spring donated $6.5 million to MSU and SPS for the agricultural magnet school.

Erin Danastasio, president of the Darr Family Foundation board and Darr’s granddaughter, previously told Springfield Business Journal that her grandfather first began to appreciate agriculture when growing up on a farm.

“For him, everything was around agriculture," Danastasio said in March. "That’s just been something that is embedded in the family."

Darr last year sold American Dehydrated Foods and International Dehydrated Foods for $900 million to Germany-based Symrise AG.