Carol Jones, Realtors, gets new identity with purchase

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

The signs are changing again for Carol Jones, Realtors. Following the closing of MidAmerican Energy's purchase of the company, along with two other real estate companies that were part of AmerUs Home Services, a division of the AmerUs Group.

Carol Jones, Realtors, has placed new signs in front of the company's commercial properties for sale, and will soon be adding new residential signs, said Diane Nicholas, who is an agent and support services director for the company.

The commercial group, which was called the AmerUs Commercial Group, will now be called CJR Commercial, Nicholas said. Not much else has changed around the local office since the May 27 closing: the company still has 335 agents in southwest Missouri and 10 offices. Nicholas said the company is looking at the possibility of another office, but has not yet made any decisions on location.

Kevin Waetke, media relations manager with MidAmerican Energy Holdings, said the real estate companies have been placed in a subsidiary company called MidAmerican Realty Services. Mid-American has made no changes to the local offices, and "we don't intend to," Waetke said.

Another AmerUs property, AmerUs Bank, was sold to Commercial Federal; that deal was to have closed July 31, said Larry Goddard, director of investor relations for Commercial Federal. A Commercial Federal sign was to go up at each of the four Springfield banks July 31, Goddard said.

Springfield has one AmerUs bank and three branches inside Dillon's grocery stores. AmerUs' presence in Missouri was concentrated on the western side of the state, mostly in the Kansas City and Springfield areas, Goddard said. AmerUs had a total of eight banks in Missouri.

No banks were sold or consolidated in order for the AmerUs-Commercial Federal deal to pass regulatory review, Goddard said, and the company is not planning to close any banks for now.

"We're really pretty pleased with where the locations are and how this expands the bank's holdings," Goddard said.

Commercial Federal has its headquarters in Omaha, Neb. Missouri was one of three states Commercial Federal did not have a presence in. The other two were Minnesota and South Dakota.

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AmerUs Commercial Group will now be called CJR Commercial a result of the sale of Carol Jones, Realtors.[[In-content Ad]]