New tenant, east-end renovations in store for Twin Oaks

Twin Oaks Shopping Center is under transition.

Part of the approximately 30-year-old shopping center on Republic Road just east of National Avenue has been gutted and refurbished for new owners.

Joni Watkins bought the east end of the center and will put her company, Preferred Title of Missouri, in the space when remodeling is completed later this year. Her new address will be 1259-1269 E. Republic Road.

Watkins purchased the space at Twin Oaks as JOT Properties.

"We've gutted the whole building," said Todd Bolin, project manager with Jack Ball & Associates Architects PC. "(Watkins is) taking the center part and has future expansion built into hers, and there's going to be a couple of units for lease later on," he added.

Watkins purchased 8,000 square feet of her total 9,600 square feet from Roger Patterson, long-time owner of Furniture Stripping of the Ozarks, a 33-year-old business first opened in Nixa in 1970, for $350,000.

A serious ladder fall in October 2001 prompted Patterson to sell the property.

Watkins' purchased an additional 1,600 square-feet of space from Gary Elmer, owner of Heather Electronics Supply Company. Elmer sold another 1,600-square-foot unit to David Mires. The units sold for $70,000 each, Mires said.

Mires, along with family-operated Gard LLC, owns 18 of the 25 units in the center. The remaining unit is home to Tom's Shoe Repair and is owned by Joe Haik.

Shannon McMurdo of Woodstone Builders LLC is the general contractor for Watkins' renovation. External features will include a pre-engineered, pitched roof with a brick-and-block faade, he said. Infill will be designed to accommodate Watkins' offices and two to three additional lease spaces.

"There's 1,600 square feet on the west end of the building, and on the east end there's two 1,600 square-foot bays that are side by side that we could lease to one tenant," said Todd Chambers, owner of Chambers Real Estate LLC, the leasing agent for Watkins' space.

The bays are 20 feet wide and 80 feet deep, Chambers added, with rents at $13.50 per square foot and lease terms ranging from three to five years.

Like a gem in the rough, the aging strip center has great possibilities, according to Chambers. "I hope that the other property owner(s) will see what Joni is doing there and kind of take her lead and renovate some more of that, because it is a great location."

Mires agreed. "We intend to renovate and so does Joe Haik, but we don't know when," he added. "We haven't been buying those up to not renovate them."