Innovation in the Ozarks

By Sherrie Voss Matthews

What do you do with an empty farm elevator and feed mill located right in the middle of your downtown's booming revitalization district? You gather as much money as you can, shoot for the stars, and plan to create an amazing new use.

That's what Springfield, Missouri, plans to do. It is looking for funding to turn its 1930s-era Missouri Farm Association feed mill into a center for nanotechnology. The Jordan Valley Innovation Center is part of a $21 million Department of Defense investment intended to create an innovative research center, one of several federally funded research centers around the U.S. It will have the added benefit of boosting the downtown revitalization of Missouri's third largest city (pop. 152,000).

"If not at the top, it's very near the top, of the list for the redevelopment of Springfield," says Greg Williams, senior vice-president of the Springfield Business Development Corporation. "The region's economy will hinge on what is done within the facility."

Over the past five years, once-vacant storefronts in and around Park Central Square have become the epicenter of the city's eclectic nightlife, with funky clothing stores, gourmet restaurants, and a hopping bar scene. But the city has been working for nearly 20 years to redevelop the mill site, located on a main thoroughfare between the city's historic Midtown and the now-popular downtown. The site consists of an eight-story building and several metal silos, eight of them across Phelps Street from the main structure.

The Jordan Valley Innovation Center represents an ambitious private, public, and institutional investment in downtown. The city of Springfield used $1.2 million in HUD funding to complete the purchase of the structure in 2003 and begin renovation. It sold the property, minus the eight silos across Phelps Street, to Southwest Missouri State University (soon to be renamed Missouri State University) for one dollar. Now DOD's grant money is being spent to complete redevelopment of the main structure, and the university is negotiating with private firms to rent most of the space ‹ reserving part of the space for university functions.

Fred Marty, the university's associate vice-president of administration services, explains that the innovation center will not be a business incubator. Rather, its aim is to research applications of biomaterials, nanotechnology and other advanced technologies, genomics, and biomedical instrument development, much of it tied to the DOD-funded research of Ryan Giedd, chair of the university's Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Materials Science. Private research firms are negotiating to set up labs to access Giedd's research and explore its commercial applications, Marty adds.

Assuming everything falls into place (including the university's approval of construction bids), conversion of the eight-story mill complex into the new innovation center is due to begin in December. The first tenants could move in by 2007. More than $7.6 million will be used to rehab the exterior of the existing building and to convert the first four floors for the university's use. Some of that amount came from a renovation grant obtained by U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

Marty says the university is trying to find another $4.4 million to pay for enhancements to phase one of the project. A total of $12 million more is needed to complete phase one and begin phase two, he says.

Although no tenants have yet signed a lease, the university has met with a number of private research firms and five are almost ready to commit, Marty adds. The university expects to choose tenants through a request for proposal process.

Ross and Baruzzini of St. Louis is the lead architect for the project. Others involved are Hera Health Educational Research Associates of Kansas City and the Springfield firms of Sapp Design Associates, which will design the exterior of the building, and Butler Rosenberry, for structural engineering.

Part of the grand scheme

The innovation center is part of a larger, long-term plan to enliven the city's downtown. That plan resulted from a process called Vision 20/20, begun in the mid-1990s. After two years and about 25,000 hours of meetings involving hundreds of local residents, Vision 20/20 concluded that taxpayers wanted a community gathering space and a viable downtown, but they also wanted to retain the city's feed mills ‹ two of which are located within the downtown area.

Now downtown also includes Jordan Valley Park, a 300-acre open space built on a brownfield site, a 140,000-square-foot exposition center, and the $34 million Hammons Field, home to the Springfield Cardinals, a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. Converting the mill complex into a research center is one piece of the Vision 20/20 plan.

Phase one of that conversion is well under way, as noted. Phase two will focus on creating manufacturing areas where research concepts can be converted into prototypes of tangible products. Finally, phase three would involve building expansion, Marty says. He expects the total makeover to take five years.

Particularly challenging are the silos at the east end of the complex. With a diameter of just 16 feet each, they are too small to be converted into hotel rooms or lofts, as has been done elsewhere. So far, Marty says, the plan is to strip away the conveyors and paint and preserve the silos.

With all the work involved, carving a research facility out of an old mill will cost about as much as new construction would, says Marty. Still, he says he is glad to reuse the old structure because of its iconic value to the city. Downtown revitalization has involved a decade-long partnership, with both the city and the university ‹ as well as private firms ‹ contributing. For the university, says Marty, reusing the old buildings "was the right thing to do."

Sherrie Voss Matthews

Matthews is a writer and editor based in Springfield, Missouri.