Jamestown auction ends era of loss for developer

The mixed-use project that started as a gleam in the eye of developer Stephen Cope has landed with a thud in the lap of Greene County.

On Oct. 31, after receiving no bids from the public, county officials assumed the seven tracts of land that comprise the largely vacant commercial and residential property dubbed Jamestown in a sheriff’s tax sale for $13.62 million – matching the full neighborhood improvement district assessment owed by investors. Cope had worked with county officials to secure an NID to fund infrastructure development, with increased property taxes expected to pay back the county. But the project never took off.

Now, county officials plan to sell off the roughly 200-acre property piece by piece.

Acting Greene County Administrator Chris Coulter said on Nov. 5 the county was still formally accepting bids on individual tracts through Nov. 7. Patriot Place residential lots were selling for $14,500 each with commercial land in adjacent Jamestown tracts going for $2.50 per square foot. However, no offers had come forward by press time. Coulter said if there was still land to sell after the 11 a.m. Friday deadline, county commissioners would decide how to proceed.

“My guess is that for any property that has not been under contract or been sold, we would then look at putting a request for qualifications together and a request for proposal to engage with a real estate firm to start marketing the property for us,” Coulter said. “It’s up to the commission, but the ultimate goal would be for the county to not be in the ownership of property.”

The sheriff’s sale removes the taxes owed for future owners and closes a chapter on the decade-long effort by one man to realize his American dream – with help from the taxpayers.

That dream began around 2000 with a vision for a mixed-use community on the western edge of Rogersville. According to Springfield Business Journal archives, plans called for a big-box retailer, restaurants, a strip center and a school to serve the subdivision residents. While the Rogersville school district annexed the land and the school was built, Cope’s dream hardly materialized.

His Jamestown LLC owed around $1 million in back taxes when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2013 just ahead of a scheduled tax sale – the same move Cope made three years earlier to save the property.

Investors who failed to pay back taxes on the property include Alpine, Utah-based lender Private Capital Group Inc., which paid $1.3 million in August 2013 for the property at the foreclosure sale that followed.

Rick McGee, an Assist 2 Sell franchisee in Springfield, worked alongside Cope throughout the economic recession as a broker with American Equities of Missouri Inc., the developer’s real estate firm charged with selling Jamestown to businesses and homebuyers.

“The project may have been a little before its time being out in Rogersville. You know, things are turning around,” McGee said. “Really, whoever ends up with it, I think will actually do well.”

While a 27,000-square-foot strip center was built, and the subdivision’s road and utility infrastructure is in place thanks to the NID, only a handful of its 104 residential lots were sold and built out.

McGee, who left American Equities in its waning days after five years last fall, said the friend he met through church folded the company and has moved his wife and four kids back to his hometown of Dallas.

McGee’s wife, Amy, was among a handful of investors who lost hope of garnering a return on Jamestown. McGee declined to say how much money his wife lost.

Cope, who did not return calls for comment, had invested at least $4 million of his own money into the project.

McGee said the development was close to turning a corner.

“Wal-Mart actually came three times on site visits,” he said, adding Wendy’s also had been under contract at one time. “If the market had kept going and we could’ve landed any big box, it would have taken off.”

Cope had some development success in the area prior to Jamestown. Cobble Creek subdivision in Nixa – consisting of 287 single-family lots developed in four phases – was American Equities’ first project, according to SBJ archives. McGee said Cope wanted to follow that up on a larger scale.

“It should have been able to sell and pay back the NID easily, even if only the residential had sold,” he said, noting the Jamestown ordeal took its toll on Cope.

“He was hurt and upset. It wasn’t just the money. He had a vision. A lot of people bashed him, but he is a good, honest businessperson. He had his heart in it more than the money.”

As for the taxpayers’ loss, county officials have no plans to use the speculative financing structure in the future.[[In-content Ad]]