The pieces are in place for the Gillenwaters family to exit the commercial real estate business that long upheld its livelihood.
Through at least four generations, the Gillenwaters name has been stamped on deeds of trust around the Springfield area. Most notably, the family developed Kickapoo Corners and Brentwood Center. It now owns neither one.
The recent sale of the two Brentwood retail properties could signal the beginning of the end in commercial development for the 59-year-old Gillenwaters Developers Inc., at least for those outside the family’s inner circle.
Next on the market is a block of South Avenue, across from Kickapoo High School, that appears to be the family’s remaining commercial property of significance, according to Greene County assessor records. Commercial real estate agent Todd Chambers has listed retail and office zoned lots in the 3500 and 3600 blocks of South Avenue, as well as a $1 million multitenant office building at 3734 South Ave. He says the office lots are under contract.
On Jan. 1, Chambers brokered the sale of roughly 150,000 square feet of Gillenwaters’ retail space on South Glenstone Avenue: Brentwood Center went to Jared Enterprises Inc., and Brentwood Center South went to St. Louis investment group Pace Properties.
I say the pieces are in place because the family is not addressing the future of the business.
In recent weeks, Gillenwaters Developers President Laurali Gillenwaters quickly declined my two requests for interviews, brushing me off so matter of factly it took this editor off guard.
I wanted to tell the family’s history in business, from the perspective of its members, and the factors leading up to the recent and impending property sales. The business this family created in Springfield is well worth the ink.
But I get it. The private property management company is choosing to remain private about its future.
It could be that family members simply have other career interests. If so, it wouldn’t be the first time a prominent Springfield family diversified. See the O’Reilly Automotive Inc. family. Third generation members are widely scattered in the fields of aviation to yoga and writing to science.
At least one Gillenwaters Developers employee is no longer working for the company, which kept an office at the Brentwood Center. Eight-year bookkeeper and leasing agent Julie Gaines worked there until December, according to her LinkedIn profile.
In 2012, Gaines wrote a personal blog about her role in the company, and in it vented about the company’s antiquated property management systems. At the time, she said Gillenwaters Developers owned and managed over 300 rental properties in Springfield and it was hiring someone to build a company website.
“Since I started in 2006, I have struggled to bring the company into the 21st century, and it is kicking and screaming all the way with resistance to change,” she wrote on the blog, titled Business 140. “I have automated and streamlined all office operations by implementing a new ‘cloud’ property management system that is working beautifully.”
The Blogspot post goes on to recommend adding a blog feature to the site to aid customer relations.
“We will use the website for posting pictures of our rentals and accepting applications,” Gaines wrote. “In time, we might even use it for online payments.”
No website exists for the company today.
For what it’s worth, Laurali Gillenwaters was quick to answer the office’s listed phone number. It’s pretty uncommon for the president of a multimillion-dollar real estate development company to answer the main line. But that’s where the communication ended.
Through public records and online documents, I’ve pieced together some history.
The Gillenwaters family started the business in February 1956 with $30,000 of capital stock split into 3,000 shares, according to the Missouri articles of incorporation on file with the secretary of state’s office. With offices in the Woodruff building downtown, organizers and board members were O.T. and Mildred Gillenwaters, W.O. Gillenwaters and J.D. Gillenwaters (Laurali’s grandfather). At the time, W.O. Gillenwaters was president of Gillenwaters Construction Co.
Two years prior, J.D. Gillenwaters served as the first president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield, and he later led Gillenwaters Developers as president from 1980 to his retirement in 1992. J.D., which stands for James Donald, died in 2012.
Today, family members listed as company directors live in Florida, as well as Hallsville and Chestnut Ridge, Mo. My message to a listed phone number in Florida went unreturned.
Laurali Gillenwaters did file an annual registration report for the company to start the year. The jury is still out on what’s next for the influential family.
Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson can be reached at eolson@sbj.net.[[In-content Ad]]
