The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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October 27, 2009

Annual Joplin chamber tour stops at growth, development sites

By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

The call room at Aegis Communications in Joplin greeted the tour group with festive orange and black balloons and streamers, and wispy spider webs strung from the ceiling.

“Comfortable atmosphere,” one person in the group said of one of Joplin’s call centers.

“They’re obviously ready for Halloween,” another added.

It was a stark contrast from the renovation project at the chilly, concrete Gryphon building the group had just visited, where the only thing strung across the ceiling were the bare light bulbs for construction work.

Aegis Communications and the Gryphon building were two of nine stops on a Tuesday tour of the town conducted by the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber President Rob O’Brian said the annual tour is a good way to show people what’s going on in their community.

“We’re all creatures of habit,” O’Brian said. “We go to school the same way; we drive to work the same way. Unless you get out into the community, you don’t see all the investment and growth.”

The Gryphon building, the midway point of the tour, has the potential for great growth, said co-owner Toby Teeter. Built shortly after the turn of the past century in the 1000 block of South Main Street, the building is being renovated for office space and mixed retail, he said.

The completed building could hold a restaurant, a fitness center and more than 400 workers, Teeter said. Parties that are interested in moving in include two software companies and the federal government, he said.

“In many ways, this is kind of putting Joplin in the game,” Teeter said.

Aegis Communications, the next stop along the tour, is also a picture of growth in Joplin, said Drew Balentine, human resources assistant.

The company has screened more than 1,100 applicants since it launched an aggressive hiring campaign July 31, and has hired about 300 people, bringing the total number of employees to about 530, Balentine said.

“We’re definitely in growth mode,” he said.

The tour also was scheduled to visit places such as the Crossroads Center Business and Distribution Park, Freeman Health System’s Women’s Center, and the new South Middle School.

Steev Ingestet, a Joplin clergyman, said he joined the tour to see what is going on in his city.

“I love Joplin, and I wanted to learn about what’s going on and how it’s growing,” Inge said. “It’s inspiring; it’s encouraging.”

Inge said he thinks it’s great that new businesses, technologies and innovations are interested in coming to the area, particularly during a recession.

“Despite what TV and the media are saying, there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity here in Joplin,” Inge said. “Things are closing, things are shutting down, but there are still a lot of positives. There’s nowhere to go but forward here.”

Chamber member Jim Fleischaker said he has been on the chamber’s previous tours, and he returned for the third year out of curiosity.

He said he was impressed by several of the locations he had seen during the first part of the tour, particularly the Beimdiek Student Recreation Center at Missouri Southern State University.

Fleischaker said he was familiar with many of the stops, such as Aegis, but the tour gave him a chance to go inside and look around.

“I’ve seen a lot of these things before, but it’s interesting to get all the information about them,” he said.



Tour number

About 30 people traveled with the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday to get a firsthand look at examples of growth.

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