By Debby Woodin

dwoodin@joplinglobe.com

Some downtown property owners are playing it close to the chest as the state considers consolidating offices, possibly along Main Street.

The move, which could bring as many as 300 jobs downtown, according to city estimates, is also raising some concerns.

The state Office of Administration has called for proposals seeking office space to rent within one mile of the city limits of Joplin for a building to house many of the offices the state now has scattered around the city. The request for proposals gives preference to a historic building, central business district, community improvement district or Main Street program district.

Larry Schepker, commissioner of the Office of Administration in Jefferson City, said the reason for the proposal is to save money. He said that Gov. Matt Blunt, when he came into office, directed the agency to move offices from leased property to property the state owned or could buy and move agencies from scattered locations to centralized buildings for the convenience of customers and employees.

Consolidation has been accomplished so far in Jefferson City, where the Truman State Office Building was established, and in St. Louis, Schepker said. The office is now trying to do the same in Kansas City, Springfield and Joplin.

The state wants 60,000 square feet of office space with 365 parking spaces.

One building that meets those specifications is the former Interstate Grocer Co. (Bagcraft) building at 1027 Main St. It has 122,000 square feet available in five stories plus a full basement that has room for parking 55 vehicles and surrounding open land to accommodate the additional parking required.

Paul Whitehill, one of the partners in Gryphon Building Co., the developer, said, “At this point I really can’t make a comment on it,” when asked if the company is submitting a proposal for the state building.

City incentives

After the state issued a request for proposals on Oct. 1, the city went public Nov. 3 with an offer of up to $1 million of the cost of buying properties in the 800 and 900 blocks of Main Street for a developer to knock down the old buildings and build a new state office building there. That’s less than a block from Whitehill’s building, but it’s an area that has been targeted by the city in the past as an eyesore.

The prospect of knocking down old buildings and raising a modern building isn’t sitting well with the director of Main Street Joplin.

Toby Teeter, the director, said the group did the work to get historic designations for many of the buildings in the area the city now proposes to knock down.

“My issue, personally, and not speaking for Main Street, is that I’m just bothered by the process in that structures of historic significance would be bulldozed down,” if the city’s proposal succeeds, Teeter said. “I’m working on my own time to create more inventory (of downtown buildings) and they want to tear them down. It seems counterproductive.”