Last edited 3:01 p.m., Nov. 19, 2014First Home Bank closed Nov. 14 on the purchase of the recently shuttered San Francisco Oven restaurant on East Sunshine Street, where it plans to build a new Springfield branch.
Joe James, executive vice president for the bank that currently operates its Queen City branch at 2655 S. Campbell Ave., said the bank - owned by Mountain Grove-based First Bancshares Inc. (OTCQB: FBSI) - bought the property for an undisclosed amount from Gordon Elliott of Elliott Lodging Ltd. The 1.2-acre lot’s 2014 taxable appraised value is $551,600, according to the
Greene County assessor.
Elliott said the restaurant, which employed about 12, closed around a month ago.
"The land underneath it was too valuable," he said of his decision to sell the property.
The hotelier plans to reopen the restaurant in a smaller space at his north Springfield Lamplighter Inn & Suites, 2820 N. Glenstone Ave., this spring.
The East Sunshine Street location of San Francisco Oven is the last one to close out of four that were open at the height of the chain. Another closed in the midst of the March 2012 bankruptcy of businessman and restaurateur Bruce Swisshelm. Elliott was landlord of the East Sunshine Street restaurant, and took over the restaurant’s operations later that month through Market Place Properties Inc., according to
Springfield Business Journal archives. Two others had operated under franchise agreements in Texas.
At the East Sunshine Street spot, First Home Bank plans to demolish the shuttered restaurant and build a 10,000-12,000-square-foot, two-story branch in its place with plans to open within 15 months, James said.
He said the roughly 10 current employees in Springfield eventually would relocate to the new branch, which would be a full-service operation. It also would replace the current First Home Bank branch on South Campbell, James said.[[In-content Ad]]
