Who are MU's biggest local contractors?

The University of Missouri paid hundreds of millions of dollars to Columbia businesses and organizations for items and services during the 2009 fiscal year, and the list is topped by construction services, textbooks, lodging, food and furnishings.
Columbia businesses and organizations received $79.5 million in payments from the university from July 2008 through June 2009, according to data provided by the university to the CBT. Approximately 86 percent of the funds, or $68 million, were made to 88 vendors who each received payments exceeding $100,000 during the fiscal year. (See list on facing page.)
In all, the university made payments to more than 1,050 businesses and organizations with mailing addresses in Columbia during fiscal 2009. The services vendors provided to the university ranged from architectural, contracting and construction work to advertising, hospitality and food services. Payments reflected in the data also include those made for overhead services such as utilities, rent and mail.
Atop the list for university payments is J. Louis Crum Corporation, a Columbia-based mechanical contractor. Company President Don Fritz was surprised to learn his company received more from the university than any other Columbia business in fiscal year 2009.
J. Louis Crum received just more than $8 million for contracting work relating to MU campus and hospital construction during that time.
The university is now one of the largest contracting opportunities in the state, Fritz said. The 2009 University of Missouri-Columbia/Campus Facilities Master Plan lists 16 campus improvement projects that are either in design or under construction.
Fritz said most of the payments J. Louis Crum received from the university, $6.2 million, stem from a 17-month contracting project that called for the installation of a steam tunnel and chilled water piping to the new Missouri Orthopaedic Institute. J. Louis Crum and MU entered into a contract agreement after the company placed a bid for the project, and Fritz said that the company paid $2.6 million out of that contract to pay various subcontractors for portions of the work.
The university’s procurement rules require that all purchases of more than $10,000 be put out for bid unless an existing contract exists between the university and a vendor or the needed services are unique to a specific supplier. Bidding is optional for purchases between $5,000 and $10,000, and purchases fewer than $5,000 do not require a bidding process.
Other major university payments in 2009 included $6.4 to MBS Textbook Exchange for book purchases to supply the campus book stores.
With record enrollment, MU ran out of dormitory space again and had to renew arrangements with Campus Lodge and Campus View to house freshmen and paid the apartment complex operators $2.3 million and $808,000 respectively.
Marathon Office Interiors won the most bids for furnishings at the MU campus and hospitals and was paid $2.3 million. Simon Oswald Associates topped the list for local architectural services. The company was paid just more than $800,000 in 2009. Kilgore’s Medical Pharmacy was paid $517,000 after it won a bid to supply pharmaceuticals for the Missouri Kidney Program, a state program administered by the university designed to help Missouri residents gain access to transplants.
Other services provided to a university are beyond the normal scope of business operations. Paternity Testing Corporation, for example, was paid $258,366 by the university to rent space for the Thompson Center Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders at 300 Portland St.
Payments in the data provided by MU include both contracts arranged after a bidding process and purchases made without a bidding process. The data show the aggregate payments made to Columbia vendors during fiscal year 2009. University policy does not require bidding for large purchases when the items are intended to be resold, such as textbooks, MU spokesman Christian Basi said.
[MU procurement rules: www.pmm.missouri.edu/purchguide/guidelines.php#methods]