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New HQs on the Rise: Engineering, architecture firms address expansion needs

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Within a couple of weeks of each other in June, a pair of firms – one engineering, the other architecture – broke ground on building projects for new headquarters with the goal of having significantly more space for operations and employees by 2020.

The projects for the Springfield-based firms, Miller Engineering PC and Paragon Architecture LLC, are both in the early phases and scheduled to be complete by spring. They join another local firm, Anderson Engineering Inc., which broke ground in February for an anticipated December completion of its new headquarters.

Once the projects are complete, footprints for all three firms will more than double. Leadership at the firms point to a lack of space and the need to add staff among the primary reasons for relocating.

“Basically, we’ve outgrown the space we’re in,” Anderson Engineering Inc. CEO and President Neil Brady said of its current 2045 W. Woodland St. office. “We have people jammed in everywhere we can.”

Adding space
Springfield-based Anderson Engineering’s new $2.5 million headquarters underway at 3213 S. West Bypass will include a 10,000-square-foot office and a separate 5,000-square-foot materials testing lab and loading dock. Brady said it’s designed at roughly 60% more space than its current office, where it’s been since 2004. This year’s Springfield Business Journal list of the area’s largest engineering firms ranked Anderson Engineering third with 16 engineers and 60 total staff. Miller Engineering ranked 15th on the list, published in July, with three engineers among its 13 staff members.

However, Travis Miller, president of Miller Engineering, said his firm’s current employee count is a 160% increase from its five-person staff back in 2014, when it moved to its current home at 3827 S. Timbercreek Ave, Ste. A.

“We cannot take on another person,” he said. “I actually had to set up a desk in the foyer of our building. We are busting.”

The firm is currently occupying about 3,000 square feet, up from 1,700 square feet in 2014. The 4,200-square-foot building also includes space for a pair of tenants, one of which is Baby Moon Midwifery Service LLC. Miller said the other tenant space is currently vacant.

Private and open offices, break room, testing lab, fitness area and a partial basement for large meetings and classroom needs are among the features for the 8,700-square-foot, two-story headquarters being built in the shadow of the firm’s current office, he said. Miller declined to disclose the project cost.

Employee count will have room to grow to 19, but Miller said he’s holding off on adding staff until the anticipated move in May.

The future headquarters for Paragon Architecture in downtown Springfield will have some space for a tenant. Approximately 2,000 square feet will be available in the building that formerly housed Inland Printing Co., with 7,000 square feet to be utilized by Paragon, said Brad Erwin, president and principal architect. Another 1,000 square feet will be dedicated to a common area.

“We’re really just looking to see who will be a good neighbor,” he said.

Renovations of the 637 E. College St. building is set for completion in time for the firm’s 10th anniversary in March 2020.

Paragon’s current office of eight years, at 430 S. Glenstone Ave., occupies less than 2,600 square feet, Erwin said.

“We needed some space and that’s to accommodate the growth that we already have and accommodate the future expansion of our firm,” he said, noting the local staff size is now 21 after two recent hires. The company was ranked 11th on SBJ’s 2019 list of the area’s largest architectural firms, published in March.

“We’ll have the ability to accommodate 27 to 30 people within the space from day one,” Erwin said. “If we look at the lease space we have available, that gives us the option for future growth.”

Contractor bids are still being sought for the project, Erwin said, noting the final cost is estimated to be higher than the $500,000 declared valuation listed on a city building permit.

Planning for the future
Brady said Anderson Engineering’s 40 corporate workers at its current office would make the move to the new headquarters. With projected growth, it’ll accommodate 65 employees. Expanding the building on the 9 acres Anderson Investment Group LLC acquired for the project is a future possibility, he added.

Hiring challenges to grow the staff have been ongoing for several years, Brady said, as finding qualified engineers and technicians outside of the bigger markets, such as Kansas City and St. Louis, is a long process. What might have taken a couple of months a few years ago to fill a local opening now can take up to eight months, if not longer, he said.

He and Miller agreed that relying on the local colleges, most notably Missouri State University, has been best for their firms.

“Sometimes that’s a slow route,” Miller said of hiring local talent and raising them up in the business, but added: “They’re your best bet.”

Brady said MSU’s cooperative engineering program with Missouri University of Science and Technology has led to hiring successes.

“That’s where we’ve found most of our local engineers for this market,” Brady said.

Erwin said his firm has looked to another local higher education institution, Drury University. Drury boasts an accredited five-year professional degree program through its Hammons School of Architecture.

“We have a great partner in our community with Drury University,” said Erwin, a graduate of the University of Illinois. “They are a fantastic resource for the architecture profession.”

Still, Erwin said his firm’s model also includes recruiting people from other universities. That’s been a talent attraction challenge, he noted, as people who go to college in larger metropolitan areas tend to remain for architecture jobs.

“As we look at both expanding our presence in St. Louis and other markets, those are the reasons to do it,” Erwin said of offices in St. Louis and Joplin.

“But we don’t want to ever turn our back on Springfield.”

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