New Plaza Towers owner revives vision for landmark building

Just days after acquiring Plaza Towers in a foreclosure sale, new owner Trent Overhue says he’s moving ahead with plans to open an event center, restaurant and coffee shop at the 10-story, 130,000-square-foot property at the intersection of Glenstone Avenue and Sunshine Street.

Overhue said in an interview with Springfield Business Journal that he plans to move quickly to complete the infill on those spaces. With the existing office tenants in the roughly 55-year-old building, he said the completion of the new commercial offerings would make Plaza Towers “a completed product.”

“For the most part, it’ll stay an office tower and then we’ll look to expand on the original plans that will incorporate a coffee shop, a new restaurant concept, kind of complete that building,” Overhue said. “We’ll look to open the event center and finish everything that’s been started.”

Overhue estimated the event center would be ready to go in 45-60 days, and he noted he’s in talks with tenants for the restaurant and coffee shop spaces.

“Both of those spaces are, I’d say, 60% built out,” he said. “The actual infill should be pretty quick.”

He declined to estimate costs for the work beyond the nearly $13.4 million winning offer he made at the April 10 trustee’s sale for the property.

Overhue said the purchase also included the Plaza Towers Center and Jimm’s Steakhouse and Pub building. Upgrades may be coming to those properties, as well.

“We’ll probably try to aesthetically enhance them,” he said.

At the trustee’s sale, Overhue traded a dozen back-and-forth bids with another bidder, Shawn Bryant, of Nixa, before the final amount of $13,364,000 was set. The first bid was for $13,340,501.

Overhue, whose business background includes the Affordable Family Storage business and Northern States Investments, said the purchase of Plaza Towers is one that carries weight in the Queen City.

“I’m excited for the opportunity and completing what’s been started,” he said. “I think it’s been obviously a staple in Springfield for a long time, and it will remain that way hopefully for the foreseeable future.”

Real estate history
Past SBJ reporting indicates Springfield Property LLC and its owner, Marco Denis, paid $13.3 million for Plaza Towers, the 35,000-square-foot Plaza Towers Center and the Jimm’s Steakhouse and Pub building in 2020 following the 2019 death of longtime owner Errett Sechler Jr.

However, Denis’ improvements to Plaza Towers stalled in mid-July 2024, when he was arrested and jailed amid Greene County Circuit Court charges of domestic assault and kidnapping. In August last year, Denis was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly possessing eight firearms illegally and lying about his criminal record when buying two of the weapons.

Prior to his incarceration, Denis told SBJ in February 2024 that Springfield Property invested at least $7 million in renovations to Plaza Towers beyond the purchase price. At the time, he was targeting a spring launch for the 200-person event center, followed by the restaurant and coffee shop spaces.

“We go way over budget – way, way, way over budget,” Denis told SBJ last year.

Denis, who remains incarcerated, could not be reached for comment by press time.

Legal proceedings
The trustee’s sale for Plaza Towers, Plaza Towers Center and the Jimm’s Steakhouse and Pub building came a month to the day after OMB Bank filed suit against Springfield Property to start foreclosure proceedings.

In the March 10 lawsuit, OMB Bank alleged Springfield Property was in default of the Plaza Towers loan and had not satisfied mechanic’s liens filed against the company. In the petition, OMB Bank indicated that the 2020 deed of trust related to the Plaza Towers purchase stated, in part, that Denis’ company would not “permit or suffer any mechanic’s, laborer’s, materialman’s, statutory or other lien on the property.”

The suit pointed to three mechanic’s liens – from Base Construction & Management LLC, Doing Steel Fabrication LLC and Springfield Sun Control LLC – totaling nearly $992,000 filed against Plaza Towers related to its renovation. It alleges that Springfield Property’s inability to resolve the liens caused foreclosure proceedings to move forward, as the 1736 E. Sunshine St. property had been listed as collateral for the loans.

Following the trustee’s sale, Chad G. Mann of the Law Office of Chad G. Mann LLC provided a statement to SBJ on behalf of his client Denis.

“This is a significant and unfortunate loss for my client, Springfield Property, LLC. The sale of Plaza Towers was forced by a series of events that should give every property owner in Missouri reason for concern,” the statement reads. “Despite my client’s efforts to resolve the matter on commercially reasonable terms, OMB Bank proceeded with foreclosure. Even more troubling is that the default was driven by three mechanic’s liens, which my client has long asserted are invalid and unenforceable.

“It should deeply trouble every investor, developer, and property owner that there is no meaningful check on the misuse or weaponization of mechanic’s liens in Missouri.”

A second trustee’s sale, held April 11, was for a portion of the Plaza Shopping Center generally located at 1930 S. Glenstone Ave., across the street from Plaza Towers. The note on that property also was called due by OMB Bank in the March lawsuit.

Attorney Rod Nichols, who served as the successor trustee for the two trustee’s sales at the Greene County Historic Courthouse steps via Spentrust-Missouri Inc., said OMB Bank, in its position as the holder of the deed of trustee, was the lone bidder for the piece of the Plaza Shopping Center.

The bidding on April 11 started at $1 million, the recorded note amount.

After no third-party bids were received at the auction, Nichols said, “$1 million going once, going twice, sold for $1 million. The sale is adjourned.”

Overhue was one of three potential bidders at the April 11 trustee’s sale.

“It’s probably too high,” Overhue told reporters.

OMB Bank President and CEO Mark Harrington, who was present at the April 10 trustee’s sale, declined to comment on the outcome of the auction of Plaza Towers. An OMB Bank spokesperson also declined comment when asked about its plans for Plaza Shopping Center moving forward.