Accounting firm secures disputed property

Samek & Co. owner Ed Samek said he is planning to keep his Springfield accounting firm at the office building it has occupied since 2001 after his wife’s investment company delivered the winning bid at a Dec. 16 partition sale.

According to the Greene County Recorder’s office, the property deed was transferred to Whitehall Investments LLC on Dec. 29. Samek said the the 9,249-square-foot building was purchased for $900,000.

Pam Samek, Ed Samek’s wife and office manager for Samek & Co., said she established  Whitehall Investments for the purpose of buying the property with Danza Investments LLC, which is owned by Ed Samek’s former business partner, Deborah Fritz. Whitehall Investments is now the sole owner of the property, and it leases space to Savage Pilates LLC and Ambassador Steel.

Fritz and Alan Nippes, former partners with Samek, left Samek, Fritz & Co. in February to start their own accounting firm, Fritz, Nippes & Associates, which operates out of Hamra Plaza, 1855 S. Ingram Mill Road. Fritz and Nippes said the company split over disputes about the future of the business. Samek said the breakup was due to personal issues he declined to discuss.

Following a January 2011 lawsuit filed by Fritz and Nippes to divide the company’s assets and settle disagreements about the ownership structure of the firm, Samek requested a partition sale – a court-ordered division of property that is owned by multiple parties.

Samek had said that he would likely move if he was not able to secure the office building for a reasonable price. According to the Greene County Assessor, the property appraised for $690,600 in 2011.

“We’re planning on staying here into the foreseeable future. Now, at some point in time, if somebody came along and wanted to buy this building at the right price and we had another place to go, I’m sure we would explore that,” Samek said, adding that he and his wife were pleased with the price.

Samek said the suit with the former partners has yet to be settled. A receiver, Dan Nelson, had been assigned to the case that asked for a declaratory judgment. In December, Nelson said he planned to provide his recommendations to Greene County Circuit Judge Michael Cordonnier this month. A call to Nelson was not returned by press time.