MSU board to vote on Plaster Center construction bid

The Missouri State University Board of Governors is expected to vote tomorrow morning on selecting a general contractor for the $7.97 million Robert W. Plaster Center for Free Enterprise and Business Development, planned in the former Willow Brook Foods building as part of IDEA Commons, which brings together innovation, design, entrepreneurship and the arts.

The meeting agenda, provided this morning, shows that DeWitt & Associates Inc. submitted the lowest construction bid of $6.79 million, and a resolution drafted on the agenda calls for the board to accept that bid. DeWitt & Associates also is the general contractor for MSU's Bill R. Foster and Family Recreation Center, which is under construction.

DeWitt & Associates' bid undercut seven others: KCI Construction Co. (St. Louis), $7.08 million; Larry Snyder & Co., $7.12 million; Carson-Mitchell Inc., $7.15 million; R.E. Smith Construction (Joplin), $7.21 million; Bales Construction Co. Inc., $7.29 million; Barsto Construction (Kansas City), $7.59 million; and Crossland Construction (Columbia), $7.89 million.

The winning bid is contingent on U.S. Economic Development Administration approval, according to the agenda.

The Plaster Center is expected to be completed in the fall. MSU acquired the Willow Brook building in downtown Springfield for $1.98 million in 2009. The center would serve as the new home for MSU's Small Business and Technology Development Center, the Missouri Procurement Technical Assistance Center and Missouri Enterprise. It would also include a business incubator aimed at recruiting entrepreneurs and startup businesses, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

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