Springfield Business Journal_2019-07-29

SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 3 JULY 29-AUG. 4, 2019 NEWS IN THIS ISSUE The Cleggs sell their longtime Sno Biz shaved ice franchise. PAGE 5 ‘Springfield Batman’ plans Batpark on the south side. PAGE 43 Vol. 40 No. 1 Web Editor Geoff Pickle reminds us: If you’re not paying for the social media product, you are the product. OPINION PAGE 37 I always wanted to own a business, but I never thought in a million years I’d own this one.” —Erik Milan of Stick It In Your Ear, on becoming owner of the music store this year PAGE 6 QUOTE OF THE WEEK Jalili family of restaurateurs rack up tax debts Co-owner Billy Jalili says a payment plan has been struck with the IRS by Geoff Pickle · gpickle@sbj.net The Jalili family of restaurateurs have nearly $500,000 in unpaid taxes, according to recent public records collected by Springfield Busi- ness Journal. Federal tax liens indicate the Jalilis owe $330,525 through their Black Sheep, Char Steakhouse & Oyster Bar and Flame Steak- house restaurant concepts. Co-owners Billy and Sara Jalili also are facing a personal tax lien of $147,323, bringing the total to $477,848. Billy Jalili said the owners have worked with the IRS on a payment plan to compensate the government agency for the unpaid taxes. “All the restaurants are doing good, and that’s why it makes it possible for us to pay off our back taxes,” he said via email. He declined to provide details of the pay- ment plan. IRS spokesman Raphael Tulino said federal law prohibits the disclosure of correspondence between the agency and taxpayers. “It’s a major tenet of tax administration,” he said. According to IRS.gov, both short- and long-term payment plans for individuals and New HQs on the Rise A trio of engineering and architecture firms are addressing expansion needs by Mike Cullinan · mcullinan@sbj.net 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 Para- gon Architecture LLC, are both in the early phases and scheduled to be com- plete by spring. They join another local firm, Anderson Engineering Inc., which broke ground in February for an antici- pated December completion of its new headquarters. Once the projects are complete, foot- prints 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 relocat- ing. “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 Engi- neering’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 materi- als 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 larg- est 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 mem- bers. However, Travis Miller, president of Miller Engineering, said his firm’s cur- rent 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 Mid- wifery Service LLC. Miller said the other tenant space is currently vacant. Private and open offices, break room, testing lab, fitness area and a partial base- ment for large meetings and classroom needs are among the features for the 8,700-square-foot, two-story headquar- ters 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 See DEBTS on page 40 JESSICA ROSA FRESH DIGS From left, Aaron Hargrave, Paul Engel and Jared Davis of Anderson Engineering Inc., expect construction on its new headquarters to wrap by December. See SPACE on page 42