Bank buys Bayless Industrial Park on courthouse steps
Chris Wrinkle
Posted online
This story was corrected June 9, 2010.
A $1.41 million foreclosure of 42 acres in a northwest Springfield industrial park was one of three trustee’s sales read on the Greene County Courthouse steps June 2.
Bayless Industrial Park, 4300–4400 W. Kearney St., was sold to Guaranty Bank for $928,000, the amount former owners John O. and Lisa A. Bayless still owed on the property. The bank was the only bidder for the industrial park’s four parcels on the east side of Alliance Drive and one parcel on the street’s west side.
The industrial park comprises four parcels on the east side of Alliance Drive and one parcel on the street’s west side. A pair of buildings on tracts of land that border the industrial park site, 4320 and 4520 W. Kearney Ave., were not included in the foreclosure, said Rich Kramer of Rich Kramer Construction, who partnered with John Bayless to construct the buildings. Kramer and Bayless own the buildings under Design-Build-Lease LLC. Rich Kramer Construction was not named in the foreclosure.
The industrial park is adjacent to Partnership Industrial Center West.
“Our interest will be to find a buyer for the property,” said Eric Leonard, senior vice president of commercial lending for Guaranty Bank, who represented the bank in the transaction. Leonard said the $1.41 million represents the amount agreed upon by Bayless and Guaranty Bank on the original deed of trust.
Bayless and his wife – doing business as Bayless Auto Salvage Inc. – sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an April 2, 2009, filing, which led to the foreclosure on the industrial park, according to Springfield attorney Gary Bishop, successor trustee in the foreclosure. Multiple phone calls to John Bayless were not returned by press time.
According to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Western District of Missouri, Judge Arthur B. Federman approved the Baylesses’ Chapter 11 reorganization plan April 26. Among the largest secured and unsecured creditors in the filing, and the estimated amounts owed, are Guaranty Bank, $6.8 million; Bank of America, $310,000; Mid-Missouri Bank, $210,000; and Cox Trust, $204,000. Rich Kramer Construction is named as an unsecured creditor owed $126,546 in Bayless’ 2009 bankruptcy filing.
Federman approved a payment schedule to secured creditors consisting of monthly payments of $3,500 with 9 percent interest to Bank of America; allowing Guaranty Bank to begin foreclosure proceedings on the industrial park; and the Internal Revenue Service’s claim of $37,717 for 2006 income tax.
The Baylesses’ businesses named in the bankruptcy include Bayless Tire & Wheel, Bayless Motor Co. Inc., Design-Build-Lease LLC and Bayless & Watt Land Development LLC. Leonard said that the bank would immediately begin seeking a buyer.
“As soon as the paperwork is completed, it’s owned by Guaranty Bank,” said Bishop of law firm Mann, Walter, Bishop & Sherman PC.[[In-content Ad]]