Undeterred by a slumping real estate market, the owners of Continental Title Co. say the Branson area's still a sure bet for business.
The provider of title and escrow services, with headquarters in Overland Park, Kan., and St. Louis, entered the Taney County market last month by acquiring Evans Title Co. for an undisclosed sum. Evans Title was equally owned by Springfield attorneys Gail Fredrick and Ken Rogers, who are partners with Fredrick, Rogers & Vaughn PC.
Through the deal, which closed Feb. 15, Continental gained a Branson closing office with two employees and a title plant in downtown Forsyth that employs eight, said Paul Pailer, Continental's regional marketing director.
Continental already has two offices in Springfield, at 1531 E. Bradford Parkway, Ste. 220, and at 1440 E. Kearney St.
Continental co-owner and Chief Financial Officer Matt McBride said the company was attracted to Taney County because of ongoing - albeit less - construction in Branson and around Table Rock Lake. He also mentioned the May opening of Branson Airport, a $155 million privately funded venture in the 8,000-acre Branson Creek development along U.S. Highway 65.
McBride acknowledged that Continental is going against the economic grain with the acquisition, but he said the move was deliberate. Despite the housing slowdown, he said, Continental sees plenty of potential in the Branson area and wanted to be in the market when conditions improve.
"A lot of our competition is not expanding," McBride said. "They're shrinking and laying people off. We have grown no less than 20 percent every year since we opened our doors (in 2001)."
Attorney Fredrick said Continental's strategy is a smart one.
"The market is definitely down, but not depressed," he said. "I think Branson will bounce back quicker than some of the other areas."
Logistically, the offices at 800 State Highway 248 in Branson and 163 Main St. in Forsyth will give Continental's Springfield offices some much-needed relief, McBride said. Until recently, Springfield employees were handling real estate transactions in Stone and Taney counties. Companywide, Continental's 15 offices perform an average of 635 closings each month.
"We needed to have a brick-and-mortar location down there," McBride said.
Three Springfield employees responsible for marketing Continental in southwest Missouri also will be working in Branson to raise awareness about the company's Taney County presence, McBride said.
"We hope to get our visibility up significantly in a real short period of time," he added.
Continental, which has more than 160 employees, primarily operates in four metropolitan areas in the Midwest: Springfield, Kansas City, St. Louis and Wichita, Kan. McBride said Continental is casually exploring the possibility of expanding into Omaha, Neb., but he noted that the title company isn't actively pursuing any other markets right now.
Attorney Fredrick, who purchased Evans Title with partner Rogers in February 1992, said Continental's owners expressed interest in acquiring the title company last fall, even though he and Rogers weren't looking for a buyer.
"We had been approached a time or two by other entities, but this company was a good fit," Fredrick said. "It was not a distress sale. It was a business fit for both parties."
Fredrick said Evans Title was previously part of Springfield-based Lincoln-Evans Land Title Co., which split into Lincoln Land Title Co. and Evans Title Co. in late 2007 to better serve respective customers in Springfield and Branson.
Evans Title dates to the 1890s, when Charles H. Groom founded Groom Title in Taney County. The name was changed to Evans Title when Groom's granddaughter and her husband, Clarence Evans, took over the company.
April 7 was the official opening day for Mexican-Italian fusion restaurant Show Me Chuy after a soft launch that started March 31; marketing agency AdZen debuted; and the Almighty Sando Shop opened a brick-and-mortar space.
