Springfield City Council member to make bid to keep Andy’s HQ downtown

The issuance of bonds for construction of a new headquarters for Andy’s Frozen Custard is on the agenda of the July 27 meeting of Springfield City Council for a vote, but a motion to table and two others to amend the measure are planned.

At yesterday’s council workshop meeting, Councilmember Brandon Jenson said he would be offering a motion to table the bill to issue $32 million in industrial development bonds. His intention is to give city staff an opportunity to make a proposal targeted at retaining the Andy’s headquarters downtown with a separate motion to modify the terms of the bond agreement. Jenson did not specify which modifications he was seeking.

Councilmember Callie Carroll raised a question about the planned motion to table.

“What do they do with the land that they’ve purchased, like, years prior in this situation?” Carroll asked. “I feel like they’ve made their point, and they’ve made their decision that they’ve wanted to move. I just feel like this is just delaying something further.”

Carroll was making a case for not slowing down progress on the project.

“Telling a business where they should locate their business seems like a major delay,” she said.

For Jenson, tabling the bill is an opportunity to keep the headquarters from leaving the city’s downtown.

“It’s just saying if you want to request $4.4 million of tax abatements that perhaps the city work to retain a downtown business in the downtown,” Jenson said. “They’re certainly welcome to locate wherever they want, but it’s whether we subsidize that move with taxpayer dollars.”

Councilmember Heather Hardinger asked what purpose the amendment would serve, since the business has already stated its desire to move from downtown.

“It would just be providing staff the opportunity to actually develop a proposal of what retaining them downtown might look like,” Jenson said.

He added that CEO Andy Kuntz was asked if company officials would be willing to stay downtown and Kuntz replied that they would not, but he said that was an unfair question with no information offered about possible incentives to do so.

Councilmember Bruce Adib-Yazdi said he also intends to offer an amendment that would track ZIP codes of workers on the construction site of the Andy’s HQ to determine the level of local labor participation.

“I’m going to ask for a 50% local labor participation and see how that goes,” Adib-Yazdi said. “It’s really not a requirement; it’s a goal, and I’m thinking this is something we ought to consider on other projects as well.”

On another measure, regarding extending hours for drive-thru windows at cannabis dispensaries to 1:30 a.m. instead of the current 10 p.m. closure time, Councilmember Craig Hosmer said he would be offering an amendment of his own. He noted the application would change the hours for all dispensaries, though only the applicant, V3 MO Vending 5 LLC, owner of Terrabis at 850 E. Kearney St., has expressed to council a desire for the change.

“Let’s do it for one facility, see if it works. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, then we need to be prepared to rescind it,” Hosmer said.

All proposed amendments and motions would have to be approved by a majority of council members to go into effect.