Year in Review: Tiger roars in 2010
This was the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac calendar, and perhaps that’s the best way to sum up the top news of 2010 in Columbia.
The biggest happening was no doubt the successful effort — dubbed Project Tiger — to lure IBM to the city. After the initial fanfare over Big Blue’s promise to provide 800 jobs, the May announcement colored the news through the remainder of the year.
This was also the year in which Columbia officially reached the 100,000 population threshold, which put the city on the map for many business executives.
And the business community let its roar be heard to great effect. The April election victories of business-backed candidates shifted the balance of power on the City Council. Development interests campaigned hard to get their favored candidates into City Hall, and the Columbia Chamber of Commerce visibly entered local politics by endorsing candidates for the first time.
MU’s Tigers made themselves heard nationwide again this year, too. The basketball and football teams will finish 2010 ranked in the top 20, which fuels enrollment for Columbia’s main economic engine. MU has continued to grow physically and in overall payroll, as does its research spending and business incubation efforts.
The Year of the Tiger comes to a close soon, but its roar was loud enough to make many look toward mid-Missouri and take notice.
City Council passes ordinance allowing residents to raise chickens within the city limits and prompts an outcry from many who say it will hurt property values.
February 2
Boone County passes an ordinance regulating stormwater runoff created by development, which was required because of federal stormwater regulations.
City staff begins moving into the new $22 million addition to City Hall. The structure is officially dedicated March 24.
Google’s announcement that it plans to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network in select communities across the country induces Columbia to put together a proposal. Cities vying for the company’s attention stage publicity stunts, including Columbia’s “flash mob,” a group of thousands who held up Google signs during the March 6 Missouri-Kansas basketball game.
March 1
Seeking to land a large data center in Columbia, the City Council passes ordinance lowering power costs for large electricity users. Economic development officials spend the rest of the year pursuing an undisclosed company considering Columbia as a location for one of its data centers.
After being hit hard by the commercial real estate bust, Jefferson City-based Premier Bank sells its three Columbia branches to First State Community Bank, which also acquires about $55 million of the bank’s non-troubled Columbia assets. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation closes the bank’s remaining branches in Jefferson City, Lake Ozark, St. Louis and Grapevine, Texas, on Oct. 15 after negotiating a purchase and assumption deal with Providence Bank. Providence Bank acquires $658 million of Premier’s remaining $1.18 billion in assets, which more than quadruples its size.
March 23
President Barack Obama signs a sweeping reform of America’s health care system. Locally, hospitals expect decreases in the uncompensated care they provide, but specialty care providers worry the expansion of insured people won’t offset changes to Medicare reimbursements.
Columbia City Council undergoes its largest turnover since former Mayor Darwin Hindman was elected in 1995. Boone Hospital Center Trustee Bob McDavid bests former 4th Ward Councilman Jerry Wade to succeed Hindman as mayor. Gary Kespohl defeats Karl Skala in a rematch for the 3rd Ward City Council seat, and newcomer to city politics Daryl Dudley emerges victorious in a crowded 4th Ward contest that included higher profile candidates Tracy Greever-Rice and Sarah Read. For the first time in its history, the Columbia Chamber of Commerce endorsed specific candidates in the races; all of its endorsed candidates win. The change in City Council makeup sends signal that it has decidedly shifted to a more pro-business stance. Voters approve a proposition to place surveillance cameras downtown.
May
Work begins on Tolton Regional Catholic High School in South Columbia off Gans Road. The $14 million project is expected to be open by fall 2011.
May 14
Missouri General Assembly concludes regular session after spending most of the time dealing with budget issues. It passes law strictly regulating adult businesses and revises some ethics rules.
IBM announces it will locate a service delivery center in Columbia and estimates the facility will employ up to 800 jobs by 2012. The deal is helped along by potential state incentives worth up to $28 million and city and county incentives worth about $5 million.
May 20
UM Board of Curators issues $30 million in revenue bonds to pay for a new Ellis Fischel Cancer Center after the university fails to convince the Missouri legislature to appropriate money for the project. Ellis Fischel will move from its current location on Business Loop 70 to the new patient care tower on the MU campus. Work on the $280 million tower structure began this summer and is expected to be complete by 2013.
May 29
Linen King, an industrial laundry service company that caters to the health care industry, announces plans to move into a 52,000-square-foot facility in Concorde Industrial Park. Company estimates put job creation at 100 in five years.
June 30
Music retailer Hennessy and Sons closes after 35 years in business. Other notable retailers closing their doors in 2010 include Pen Point Paperie in July and A la Campagne in December.
Groundbreaking held for new high school on St. Charles Road in Boone County. Columbia Public Schools’ third high school, named Muriel Williams Battle High School in November, is expected to catalyze development in the area northeast of the city limits. It is scheduled for completion in 2013.
July 21
President Obama signs financial reform act, which establishes new regulations for everything from community banks to derivatives and creates a new federal department charged with overseeing consumer protection.
July 21
Less than three years after its renovation and reopening, the Missouri Theatre closes its doors and lays off its staff for lack of money.
Two local telecoms are awarded federal stimulus grants to build broadband networks in the state. Socket Telecom receives more than $23 million to build a network in rural Boone and Callaway counties. Startup BlueBird Media receives $65 million in state and federal money to build a broadband network spanning 59 northern Missouri counties.
Aug. 10
Lenders buy back 206 acres of commercial land from Forum Development Group at foreclosure sales. They pay $4.8 million for the real estate on US Highway 63 across from the Discovery Ridge research park where Forum had planned to build a commercial and residential development.
The new $12 million Holiday Inn opens on Interstate 70 after a two-year delay and marks one of the few new commercial buildings in a struggling market. Other notable projects include the Goodwill store on Grindstone Parkway, which opened in September, and South Providence Plaza, which opened in the early spring.
Aug. 23
MU begins classes with a freshmen class 9.6 percent larger than the year before, at 6,160 students. Total enrollment is the highest ever, with 32,009 students, 24,759 of them undergraduates.
Late August
University officials are told to expect higher education budget cuts of around $250 million amid an expected state budget gap of at least $600 million for fiscal year 2012. Expiring federal stimulus dollars had propped up the state budget for the past two years, and higher education had been spared cuts after Gov. Jay Nixon struck a deal to limit higher-ed funding slashes in exchange for a tuition freeze.
September
MU begins reviewing degree programs after the state Department of Higher Education tells the state’s universities to justify academic areas that produce low numbers of graduates. The final review is due to the department by the end of the year and is expected to be used to eliminate some degrees.
Sept. 1
After 20 years as dean of MU’s Robert J. Trulaske College of Business, Bruce Walker retires. He is replaced by Joan Gabel from Florida State University.
Sept. 2
Moberly Area Community College opens its Columbia Higher Education Center in the Parkade Center. The opening underscores the revitalization of Columbia’s first shopping mall by the Burnam family, who spent $5 million renovating it and reduced the vacancy rate from nearly half to 10 percent.
Sept 13
After battling heart complications for years, Columbia developer Jose Lindner dies at age 62.
Sept. 20
Mayor Bob McDavid creates a special task force to study the city’s pension funds and develop solutions to deal with its rising liabilities at the same time its fund balance has been shocked by market turmoil.
Sept. 24
Columbia College President Gerald Brouder announces the school has raised $3 million for plans to build a 40,000-square-foot, $13 million science building on Range Line Street.
Oct. 5
City Manager Bill Watkins announces he intends to retire in March after five years managing Columbia and 20 years as an employee with the city.
Oct. 8
H3 Studio, in conjunction with the Downtown Leadership Council, releases its final Downtown Charrette report. The planning document for the downtown area recommends, among other things, the city establish a Tax Increment Financing district in the downtown area to pay for some of the goals outlined in the report.
Oct. 15
3M’s Columbia plant manager confirms the local factory is preparing to begin manufacturing new health care products and a film for the solar panel industry. The projects are estimated to create 100 to 120 jobs during the next 18 months.
Oct. 16
The YouZeum closes its doors after being open for only two and a half years. The interactive children’s museum never generated the revenue to support the rehabilitation of the old federal building it was housed in. Columbia College buys the building for an undisclosed price and plans to move its online and nursing education centers there by August 2011.
Oct. 18
City Council approves office development known as Leawood Plaza for the southwest corner of Stadium Boulevard and Broadway that will tear down the vacant, dilapidated houses currently sitting on the corner.
Oct. 21
Discount apparel retailer Marshalls opens in space vacated by Circuit City on Bernadette Drive next to Toys“R”Us.
Oct. 23
MU football breaks loosing streak against Oklahoma in front of ESPN’s cameras, which were in town to feature Columbia for its GameDay program.
Oct. 26 – 28
City holds open houses detailing its plans to build high-voltage transmission lines near some affluent Columbia neighborhoods. The events draw hundreds of residents concerned the lines will depreciate their property values and have adverse health effects on their children.
November
UM System President Gary Forsee holds town hall meeting with university faculty and staff discussing possible changes to the institution’s retirement plan. The Board of Curators begins in-depth discussions of a recommendation that the university move to a defined-contribution plan over its current defined benefit plan.
Nov. 2
Republicans give Democrats a “shellacking” in mid-term elections and retake the House of Representatives. In local competitive races, Republican Ed Robb defeats Democrat Scott Christianson in the Boone County presiding commissioner race by fewer than 600 votes, which makes Robb the only Republican elected official in county government. Columbia 5th Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser fails to unseat incumbent Democrat Chris Kelly in the 24th District, and Republican John Cauthorn beats Democrat Kelly Schultz in the 21st District. Columbia voters again extend the one-eighth-cent parks sales tax for another five years.
Nov. 8
Columbia’s Tax Increment Financing Commission holds its first review of the proposal to redevelop the Regency Hotel on Broadway. Developer David Parmley, who developed the Hampton Inn and Suites, asks for $3.24 million in TIF assistance for a planned $17.5 million, 112-room boutique hotel at the site of the aging Regency.
Nov. 16
The Columbia Daily Tribune announces it will begin charging for online content Dec. 1. Comments on the newspaper’s site drop off dramatically after readers can no longer see local content for free.
Nov. 22
UM Board of Curators issues $265 million in revenue bonds for capital projects on its four campuses. About $119 million will go to MU projects.
The $6.8 million Maguire Boulevard extension opens after a summer rainstorm nearly caused the collapse of one of the walls and delayed the project’s completion by two months. The extension was narrowly approved by City Council in 2008 over some members’ concerns about the impact on Grindstone Creek. The road will provide much needed access to the Concorde Industrial Park, which is only accessible through New Haven Road to the south.
Dec. 1
Public comment period for federal regulations mandating a 40 percent reduction in stormwater runoff into Hinkson Creek closes. The city, county and MU prepare to fight the proposed rules, set to take effect Dec. 31.
Gary Drewing, owner and president of Joe Machens Dealerships, announces he has purchased Estes Motors, which increases his share of the Columbia car market to about 75 percent and leaves only four other dealerships to compete against him.
Dec. 2
MU researchers Kattesh Katti and Raghuraman Kannan announce Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer Shasun plans to invest $2 million to $3 million in a joint venture with their company, Nanoparticle Biochem, to commercialize a prostate cancer treatment.
Dec. 6
City Council approves the 181-acre Richland Road annexation and rezoning request after a two-year review that catalyzed the development of the East Area Plan, which the Council approved in November. The approved proposal is scaled down version of the original request and leaves out a 90-acre commercial tract. Developer David Atkins later says he will need to sell the land to pay off debts.
Dec. 9
UM Board of Curators indicates it wants to keep tuition increases below 10 percent for the upcoming academic year. Tuition had been frozen for two years in exchange for an agreement with Gov. Jay Nixon to protect higher education from significant cuts. The tuition increase is meant to help offset state higher education cuts many expect to total hundreds of millions of dollars.