Plaza Towers auctioned to highest bidder

A trustee's sale on the steps of the Greene County Historic Courthouse marked the latest movement in the ongoing saga involving Plaza Towers, the 10-story, 130,000-square-foot property that looms over the intersection of Sunshine Street and Glenstone Avenue.

Trent Overhue, of Springfield, submitted the winning bid of nearly $13.4 million in the proceedings held Thursday afternoon. Another bidder, Shawn Bryant, of Nixa, traded a dozen back-and-forth bids before the final amount of $13,364,000 was set, following the first bid of $13,340,501.

Attorney Rod Nichols, who served as the successor trustee for the sale via Spentrust-Missouri Inc., yesterday said the sale would not be final until the winning bidder submitted the full sum on Friday morning. Springfield Business Journal this morning sought to determine whether the sum was presented as planned but did not hear back by deadline from Nichols, who is an attorney at Spencer Fane LLP, Overhue or officials with OMB Bank, which filed suit to call the loan note due on Plaza Towers last month.

Overhue has been involved with the Affordable Family Storage business, according to a 2020 report from Biz 417, and a profile on LoopNet.com refers to him and owner and listing manager for Northern States Investments.

"I just do my own thing,” he told reporters after the trustee’s sale concluded.

Overhue declined to share his plans for Plaza Towers with reporters.

OMB Bank President and CEO Mark Harrington, who was present at the trustee's sale, declined to comment on the outcome of the auction.

The sale is for Plaza Towers building at 1736 E. Sunshine St. and surrounding property, according to a trustee's sale notice in The Daily Events publication and Greene County assessor records.

The recorded amount listed for the property in The Daily Events notice is $13.3 million. That's the same amount listed for the OMB Bank loan, recorded in September 2020, related to Springfield Property LLC's purchase of Plaza Towers.

Past SBJ reporting indicates Springfield Property and its owner, Marco Denis, paid $13.3 million for Plaza Towers, Plaza Towers Center and Jimm’s Steakhouse and Pub building. The Daily Events notice also points to lots 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Plaza Towers subdivision that correspond in Greene County assessor records with the Plaza Towers Center and Jimm’s Steakhouse and Pub building.

OMB Bank sued Springfield Property and Denis to call the note on the property due last month. The lawsuit alleged Springfield Property was in default of the Plaza Towers loan and had not satisfied mechanic's liens filed against the company. The petition stated 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."

Denis' attorney, Chad G. Mann of the Law Office of Chad G. Mann LLC, provided a statement to SBJ following the trustee's sale.

"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."

In August 2024, 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, according to past reporting. Denis was arrested and jailed in mid-July amid Greene County Circuit Court charges of domestic assault and kidnapping.

Beyond the purchase price, Springfield Property and Denis invested at least $7 million in renovations to Plaza Towers that includes new restaurant and event spaces that have not yet been utilized.

"We go way over budget – way, way, way over budget," Denis told SBJ in February 2024.

A separate trustee’s sale is scheduled this afternoon for Springfield Property’s holdings at 1930 S. Glenstone Ave., according to The Daily Events. The recorded amount is listed at $1 million.