A crown jewel of downtown Springfield's entertainment scene is scheduled to hit the auction block this month.
The Gillioz Theatre, owned by nonprofit Springfield Landmarks Preservation Trust, is slated to be sold Nov. 15 on the southern steps of the historic Greene County Courthouse. The scheduled sale of the Netters-Gillioz building at 325 Park Central East was published in the Nov. 1 issue of legal-notices publication The Daily Events.
Philip Rothschild, director of the entertainment management program at Missouri State University and board president of the Springfield Landmarks Preservation Trust, said the ownership group was notified Guaranty Bank had elected to call the mortgage due on the property.
“We are currently in talks with Guaranty Bank and cannot comment at this time about ongoing negotiations, or what led to this decision. As a board, we are confident we will come to an agreement that will satisfy all parties,” Rothschild said via email. “The Gillioz Theatre continues to do business as usual.”
The trust filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in December 2010 – avoiding foreclosure on the property by Guaranty Bank, which held a $3.5 million debt against the property – after a failed attempt to receive historic state tax credits complicated the theater’s financial standing, according to
Springfield Business Journal archives.
J. Michael Bridges, a partner with Husch Blackwell’s Springfield office who represented Guaranty Bank in a scheduled foreclosure before the trust’s late 2010 bankruptcy filing, according to Springfield News-Leader reporting, did not return a call for comment.
"We have a firm policy that we do not comment on customer relationships," Guaranty Bank President and CEO Shaun Burke said via email.
Paul Sundy, a partner in English Management, the firm selected in October 2012 to manage the Netters-Gillioz building, said in an October interview that English Management’s association with the Gillioz would be ending in the near future in accordance with its contract. Sundy did not return multiple requests for comment this month.
Rothschild said English Management’s contract to manage the building ended Oct. 31.
A volunteer-led governing group dubbed the Gillioz Restoration Partnership LP directs the Springfield Landmarks Preservation Trust. In June 2012, Gillioz Restoration board member Bill Dunton, a partner with Abacus CPAs LLC, said the Gillioz made each of its roughly $13,000 monthly payments on the debt service to Guaranty Bank since the court approved a 25-year payment plan on the loan in February 2011.
According to Gillioz.org, the theater has 12 shows scheduled after Nov. 15, including acts such as comedian Drew Carey on Dec. 13, punk rockers Dropkick Murphys on Feb. 25 and folk singer Arlo Guthrie on March 30.
“The board is very optimistic an arrangement will be reached with Guaranty prior to Nov. 15 that will allow the Gillioz Theatre to continue providing programming for our community,” Rothschild said.
