New breakfast spot, FedEx facility gets city and county building permits.

A southern-inspired menu with southern-sized portions will soon be ready for hungry diners at Jo Jo’s Biscuit Company in the space previously occupied by Crushed Red on Broadway Bluffs Drive. Meanwhile, FedEx is downsizing in other parts of the country but is planning a $23.2  million building project east of Columbia.  

Those two projects are among the highlights of building permits issued in April by the Columbia Building and Site Development Office and the Boone County Resource Management Office. Together, the two entities approved 185 building permits with an aggregate valuation of $55.7 million.  

Jo Jo’s Biscuit Company might have a familiar feel because owner Jason Paetzold already has a steady presence in downtown Columbia’s dining scene. Paetzold, a Texas native, opened Bud’s Classic BBQ in the summer of 2021 at 304 S. Ninth St., which was formerly Pickleman’s and Ingredient.  

The city-issued building permit for 2540 Broadway Bluffs Drive, Suite 109, is for “minor non-structural alterations to an existing restaurant tenant space to accommodate a new restaurant.” The permit listed a valuation of $150,000 for the 2,970-square-foot project. The general contractor is Peavler Construction LLC of Huntsville, Missouri, and the engineer is J-Squared Engineering LLC of Columbia.  

Paetzold said Jo Jo’s will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. An opening is set for mid-June.  

“It’s a concept that we had with our hospitality group,” he told COMO Business Times. The breakfast and brunch restaurant will feature several comfort food options with a southern flair, including scratch-made gravy and buttermilk biscuits. Paetzold also promised a “family atmosphere.”  

The city’s building permit report for April listed 108 permits with a total valuation of $19.36 million. Forty-two of the permits were for re-roofing ($634,386) and twenty-five were for single family dwellings ($10.5 million).  

The rest of the building permit breakdown includes:  

• Commercial addition: 1 permit, $101,288 valuation 

• Residential addition: 7 permits, $287,347  

• ADU (waived fees): 1 permit, $0 

• Commercial alteration: 14 permits, $2.73 million 

• Residential alteration: 10 permits, $590,167 

• Pool (1&2 family): 1 permit, $51,880  

• Commercial infill: 1 permit, $308,274  

• Commercial, new: 1 permit, $37,354  

• Deck only: 3 permits, $57,000  

• Solar (residential): 2 permits, $61,000  

Work progresses on the years-long Improve I-70 project to add a third lane to the westbound and eastbound lanes across the state. Crews are making their way toward the I-70/Highway 63 connector, which will be replaced by a new interchange. The Columbia to Kingdom City part of the project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2027. 

Photo by Jodie Jackson Jr 

The lone new commercial project is a twenty-four-foot-square open side shelter for Cosmo Park football fields 5 and 6 at 1425 Schwabe Lane. Columbia Parks and Recreation was listed as the project’s general contractor.  

The Crossing Church at 3615 and 3703 Southland Drive in south Columbia received a pair of building permits. The first is for a building addition to provide a special needs ministry room. GBH Builders and Simon Associates, respectively, are the contractor and architect for the project. A second project is interior alteration of office space. Coil Construction is the contractor and BK2 Electric and Design LLC is a subcontractor. The project valuations are listed as $101,287 and $261,156.50, respectively.  

Peak Sport and Spine will benefit from an interior remodel of Suite 101 at 4205 Philips Farm Road in the Discovery Ridge development. The 3,000 square foot project has a permit valuation of $225,000. Discovery Development LLC is the general contractor. Other contractors include Precision Electric, Inc., Star Heating, and Johnson Plumbing, all of Columbia.  

Perez Construction Services LLC of Columbia is the contractor for interior alterations to an existing 2,675 square foot tenant space at 10 W. Nifong, Suite 109, to accommodate a hair and nail salon. The permit listed a valuation of $150,000.   

The Drury Plaza Hotel at 3100 I-70 Drive SE is adding a kitchen and a bar to its existing lobby. The alteration has a valuation of $125,000 and involves around 1,500 square feet. The contractor is Drury Development Corporation, based in St. Louis. The permit also noted that the eight-story hotel has 210 rooms.  

The Columbia Public Schools Roseta Avenue Learning Center at 1100 S. Roseta Ave. is getting new flooring, ceiling replacement, and a ten-foot-tall fence on the Highway WW side of the property. Kelly Hawkins is the general contractor for the $600,000 project.  

The third floor of the Hawthorn Bank building downtown at 803 E. Walnut St. will be built out to accommodate the business offices of Essent Title Insurance Inc. The building permit is for commercial infill. The project entails 5,270 square feet and is listed with a $308,274 valuation. The general contractor is Cornerstone Construction LLC/John Horn, of Columbia. Subcontractors, all of Columbia, are Korb Electric, Accurate Heating & Cooling Inc., and Advanced Plumbing Co.  

Boone County’s April building permit report listed seventy-seven permits with a combined valuation of $36.32 million. The breakdown includes:  

• Single family residential: 22 permits, $8.1 million valuation  

• 2 family buildings: 2 permits, $400,000  

• Stores/mercantile buildings: 2 permits, $22.23 million  

• Other nonresidential: 13 permits, $3,579,000  

• Other structures: 5 permits, $302,000  

• Residential addition/alteration: 10 permits, $662,437  

• Nonresidential addition/alteration: 6 permits, $597,130  

• Residential garage: 7 permits, $418,600  

• Miscellaneous: 10 permits, $45,059  

The big-ticket permit on the county’s report is for the FedEx facility on Enterprise Drive east of Columbia near the American Outdoor Brands distribution center. The $23.24 million FedEx project will consist of an office/terminal (valuation $20.23 million, 47,010 square feet), a shop and lube shed ($2.92 million, 11,650 square feet), guard house ($77,000), and fuel shed ($20,000). Poettker Construction of Breese, Illinois, is the general contractor.  

An AI-assisted overview of recent FedEx operations stated that FedEx has been laying off employees as part of a broader plan to streamline operations and reduce costs. That effort is often coupled with initiatives like consolidating networks, closing facilities, and adjusting staffing levels to adapt to changing market conditions and customer demand.  

FedEx is combining its Express and Ground operations into a single network, referred to as Network 2.0. In the past two months, FedEx has laid off employees in eight states, but not in Missouri.  

Elsewhere, Concorde Plaza LLC is building a $2 million, 28,000 square foot spec building at 5755 Tom Bass Road just south of Columbia. Boone County Resource Management Administrative Coordinator Christine Crane said the permit documents don’t list concrete plans but suggested “possible indoor tennis courts and other businesses.”  

The city and county April building permit reports listed twenty-five single family homes, valued at $10.5 million, for the city, and twenty-two single-family homes, valued at $8.1 million, for the county.  

Collectively, the permits totaled $18.6 million in building activity, with an average value of $395,744.  

The top-dollar home on the Boone County report was a $785,000 home on Smith Hatchery Road, with Fairway Meadows Corp. As the builder. Anderson Homes had the lowest priced house — $220,000 on Frazier Loop — on the city permit report, as well as the top-dollar home — $868,000 — on South Lagos Drive.