Holland building changes hands

John Sellars: The Holland building's look is the same now as when it was built in 1914.

 New ownership recently took over an iconic downtown Springfield building, making them just the third owners in the property’s 108-year history.

The Casey family sold the Holland building at 205 Park Central East to Dr. Bradley and Christine Newberry, effective Dec. 29. Christine Newberry said she and her husband bought the building for $3 million through Newberry Investments LLC, adding the transaction was funded in part through a $2.4 million loan from UMB Bank. 

The Newberrys aren’t new to residential investments, as they own several apartment complexes and townhomes in Christian County and recently bought a duplex in Springfield. However, Newberry said the Holland building marks the couple’s first commercial investment. 

“Brad and I have been wanting to own a historical landmark for some time. We’ve just been looking around and meeting with investors and finding things we can invest in and pass down to our children,” she said, noting her husband found the Holland building for sale on LoopNet.com.

Allen and Mary Lou Casey became only the second owners of the building when they purchased it in 2000 from the R.B. Murray family, according to Springfield Business Journal archives. The Caseys invested $2.5 million renovating the property before it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

“Mary Lou and I love that building,” said Allen Casey, managing member for the sellers, in a news release. “We love the square, and we love the history of Springfield’s downtown, but we now reside in San Antonio, Texas, so it’s a challenge to take care of your prized possession that far away. And after 20 years, we felt it was time to pass the property on to someone new.”

Attorney Chip Sheppard of Carnahan Evans PC represented the seller in the transaction.

History lesson
John Sellars, executive director emeritus at History Museum on the Square, said the Holland building construction started in 1913 and completed the next year. It was erected as a memorial to Telemachus Blondville Holland and built in his memory by daughter Louise Holland Jarrett, who inherited the land on which it sits after her father’s death in 1913, according to the National Register of Historic Places.

“The building then looks pretty much as it does today,” Sellars said of the five-story concrete building with a basement. “Retail on the first floor then offices above. It was the first offices for many of the doctors in Springfield.”

There are now 40 office and two restaurant tenants, Rise and European Cafe. Sellars said Zales Jewelers was a longtime tenant in the building, occupying the space where Rise now operates. It left the building to relocate to Battlefield Mall in the early 1970s. 

Sellars said the museum was among those who filled space at the Holland building during a five-year, over $12 million renovation project for the museum nearby at 157 Park Central Square. The attraction opened in 2019.

“My office was in there,” he said. “During the time of construction of the museum, we had office space on the fourth floor. We had a beautiful view out across the square.”

Sellars said while most older buildings downtown have been refaced, repurposed or had additions, the Holland building is probably one of the oldest to maintain its original appearance.

Setting roots
The Newberrys have resided in Springfield since 2007 after moving from California. Christine Newberry said the relocation decision was made shortly after she gave birth to their second of three children.

“When we were in California, we were deciding where we wanted to live our life and raise our children,” she said. “It was either go back to the East Coast where I’m from or come here to the Midwest. It was kind of a no-brainer. We thought the quality of life and everything would just be better here for us and our future children.”

Newberry said her husband was born in Springfield and grew up in Nixa, while she’s a native of Brooklyn, New York. They met in 2003 when both were stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas and married soon after. Brad served five years in the military as a dentist, while Christine was an emergency medical technician. After completing their service, they moved to California, where Brad went back to dentistry school for endodontics, studying at Loma Linda University. 

Newberry said since 2007 her husband has owned Endodontics of the Ozarks LLC, which specializes in root canals and has offices in Springfield and Branson. She managed the Springfield office for about 12 years but stepped away to go back to school.

“It started out as just for enrichment purposes, but I just loved it and made a degree out of it,” she said of her bachelor’s in religious studies she received in 2020 from Missouri State University.

Aside from their Springfield home, the couple also owns residential property in Destin, Florida, and Kauai, Hawaii. Newberry said she considers the Kauai house their second home, as the family frequently spends summers there when the school year is over. 

While her husband maintains his dental practice, Newberry said she’s the on-site manager at the Holland. 

She said occupancy is around 85% with a variety of businesses among its tenants. They include attorney offices of Joseph Scott and Andrew Lipscomb, aesthetician practice The Ritzy Flat LLC, Danielle Joyce Counseling Service LLC and MSRG Real Estate Group LLC.

The building’s available offices range 175-540 square feet. The average rental price is $20 per square foot. Newberry said they’re planning renovations to several of the available spaces, along with upgrading restrooms and replacing HVAC systems. 

“We’re adding new amenities for the tenants. We’re in the process of adding a fitness center,” she said, noting the 600-square-foot, second-floor space is expected to be finished later this year. “We thought that would be something they’d really like.”

The building sale includes an adjacent 42-space parking lot, which Newberry said they will resurface. They’re also looking at the feasibility of the lot becoming a two-level structure. 

The basement is only being used for storage currently, but Newberry said it could possibly become a live music venue. Former improvisation comedy group The Skinny Improv performed in the building’s basement in the early 2000s, according to SBJ archives.

“I know we’re going to use it in some way,” she said, adding costs for the building’s planned and possible upgrades are still “pretty preliminary.”

“I’m just glad we chose to buy an existing building rather than build a new commercial property,” she said. “When you preserve a historic building, you help reduce waste and tend to conserve your local resources by using and repairing existing structures instead of tearing them down and building new ones in their place.

“We just want to keep Springfield’s downtown history alive.”