Investor resurrects four 65 Marketplace properties

McBee, a Kansas businessman with a retail and marketing background, moved to Springfield in February 2004 after determining the area was primed for growth.

However, it took him a year to find the right investment, which presented itself in the form of four Winters-owned properties: three retail strip centers and a partially completed apartment complex in Ozark’s 65 Marketplace at Highway 65 and Route J.

McBee paid about $5 million for the whole shooting match, completing his acquisitions in May.

“(The properties) needed a fresh approach to finishing them out,” McBee said.

“There was some depressed value there, absolutely. Especially with the apartment complex.”

All signs indicate that McBee’s opportunity came because Winters ran into business trouble.

Winters, who did not respond to repeated requests for an interview, has closed two franchised Bojangles’ chicken restaurants – one in 65 Marketplace and one next to Battlefield Market Place – and scrapped plans for others. Phone numbers for Winters-owned Regal Industries LLC, R.C. Winters Construction Inc. and Glacier Capital LLC have been disconnected. And at least 14 lawsuits were filed against Winters in the 38th Judicial Circuit – Christian and Taney counties – between July 2003 and September 2005.

The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Division of Employment Security filed six of those lawsuits against Winters. Department spokeswoman Tammy Cavender couldn’t divulge specifics, but she said such cases typically involve failure to pay unemployment contributions or failure to report wage information.

“Employers in the state of Missouri are required to send, we call them contributions, but they’re basically taxes on the first so-many-thousands-of-dollars earned by employees,” Cavender said of the unemployment contributions.

The state was seeking a total of $5,105 in the lawsuits, two of which have been resolved.

There is also a trail of unpaid bills. Conco Cos. and Meek’s The Builder’s Choice were among those companies and individuals suing for payment.

But Winters is trying to meet those bills, according to Bradley Tuck, attorney for Meek’s. Tuck said Winters paid $1,270 following the judgment in an August 2004 breach of contract lawsuit.

“Meek’s sold him materials,” Tuck said. “The materials were not timely paid for.

“Most people don’t pay (their judgment), so that puts him a notch above most others.”

Chris Stark, attorney for Conco Companies, said he had no comment on pending litigation filed against Winters by his client in December 2004.

Meanwhile, McBee’s new properties, which he acquired in March and May, are buzzing along.

He said all three of his retail strip centers – 19 storefronts with a combined 28,000 square feet – already are leased, with all but two tenants open for business. He expects the final two to be operating by January.

Chinese restaurant Century Buffet, Mailbox It, Gold Rush Payday Pawn & Fine Jewelry and Grandmaster Han’s Martial Arts of Southwest Missouri are among McBee’s business tenants.

Construction resumed on the Embassy Apartments in August after more than a year of sitting partially built, according to McBee.

McBee said he foresees leasing the first units in January, part of a first phase that will cost about $3 million to complete and includes a pool, tennis courts, clubhouse and pavilion.

Phase II, which would bring another 96 apartments and which he expects will cost another $3 million, is scheduled to begin in the summer.

Once the apartments are full, McBee said, he wants to introduce cross promotions such as fliers and coupons to encourage his residential tenants to spend their money with his business tenants.

65 Marketplace developer Steve Stinnett said he wasn’t involved in the Winters-McBee transaction, but he’s glad to see the properties being utilized.

“I’m happy to see that the apartment complex is definitely back under construction,” Stinnett said. “And that the buildings that Mr. Winters had built and some of the landscaping and some of the areas that he had neglected are being taken care of by the new owner.”

McBee said he’s looking forward to hanging his hat on the properties for years to come.

“I was looking for some investment property that was in a fast-growing area,” McBee said. “We liked what was happening in Ozark.”