Torgerson Design nears HQ groundbreaking date

After getting a green light from the city of Ozark last month, Torgerson Design Partners LLC is on the verge of breaking ground on a new headquarters that will be within sight of its current office on the downtown square.

John Torgerson, principal architect and owner of the firm he founded in 2010, said permits from Liberty Utilities to move some overhead power lines underground are still pending before the project at the intersection of First and Church streets can move forward. The vacant lot at 101 W. Church St. is where an over century-old building collapsed in late 2022. City officials said demolition of the building was completed in January 2023.

Torgerson said he purchased the 27-by-92-foot lot in summer 2023 for an undisclosed amount from Huckleberry Investments LLC. He said the former property owner was not interested in building anew on the site. Torgerson owns the property via JLK +3 LLC, according to the Christian County Collector’s office.

“We hope to break ground in the second week of July,” Torgerson said, declining to disclose costs for the project he estimated will take nine months to complete. “We’re fully funded, and we’ve already selected our general contractor.”

Xperience Construction LLC has been tabbed to build the headquarters designed by Torgerson Design Partners. The four-story building includes a rooftop conference center with seating capacity for 25 along with additional outdoor space.

“We’ll use it ourselves from time to time, but that will be open for the community as rentable meeting space,” he said, adding the top floor also has a kitchenette.

The firm, which has three licensed architects among its 25-person workforce, will fill much of the building’s roughly 13,000 square feet, Torgerson said. An additional 1,100 square feet of first-floor space will be available to lease. Torgerson Design has operated on the Ozark square at 116 N. Second Ave. since 2014. The new headquarters will be over twice the size of its current office.

“This is our home. When that [property] came open, that really worked for our building size and our employees to make our studios more effective, more efficient,” he said. “It just became exciting to be able to do a project of new construction on the historic square and to be able to stay at our home, basically.”

Addressing concerns
Mayor Don Currence broke a 3-3 tie to approve the design of the four-story building at the May 6 Ozark Board of Aldermen meeting. The Ozark board – which rejected a previous design in April over concerns that the building wouldn’t fit with other structures on the historic square – had oversight of the design since the property is located within the historic overlay district and the C-4 central business district zoning codes, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

Speaking before the vote, Torgerson said he believed changes made to the design since the April 15 meeting resolved concerns associated with the project. Changes focused on the compatibility of the new building to fit with other structures on the historic square.

Still, several alderpersons, including Eddie Campbell, again voted against the building. Campbell said his concerns weren’t with the aesthetics of the building but with the structure’s size.

“I’m afraid with that fourth floor that it’ll be taller than the courthouse, and with this being a historic courthouse square, I don’t think any building should stand taller than the historic courthouse,” he said during the May meeting. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to approve this development at this time.”

Christine Vandiford, who owns 4 the Love of Crafts LLC, a business located next door to the vacant lot, also spoke out against the building’s approval. While the look of the windows was improved with the second design, she said the planned structure still didn’t fit with other properties on the square.

“The bottom half still does not even kind of match up with the other stores,” she said at last month’s meeting. “That was something that was brought up. It does not look like the other boutiques.”

Compatible compliance
Torgerson said the city’s ordinance that addresses historic overlay districts with regard to new construction is vague.

“They don’t want us to build something that could confuse visitors of whether something is a historic building or not. It needs to look modern and be compatible with materials, proportion, shape, size and fit in a historic downtown area,” he said, noting the firm tried its best to comply with the ordinance. “It’s not black and white; it’s gray. It’s up to a subjective nature to define what is compatible. We worked with the board to understand who is making the final judgment, and so that’s where we negotiated with them to come up with the second version.”

While he said the former Church Street building’s collapse was devastating, Torgerson said purchasing the land was a chance for his firm to stay where it has called home for its near 15-year history.

“It became an opportunity and the ability to make something good, something incredible out of something that was a devastation,” he said, adding it also will provide new space for a yet-to-be-determined tenant. “It’s perfect for a small attorney or insurance office. It could be retail space for a small shop.”

The building project isn’t the first time Torgerson Design has planned to expand its footprint. The firm in early 2020 looked to build a $3 million 18,000-square-foot office at the corner of West Jackson Street and North Third Street, according to past SBJ reporting. However, Torgerson said the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in March 2020, was the primary factor that ended those plans.