Presidio purchases NationsBank facility

by Paul Flemming

SBJ Staff

The NationsBank building on Park Central Square sold in late April to a Dallas-based investment company. The bank retains a long-term lease on the property.

"This is just a financial transaction," said Kelly Polonus, spokeswoman for NationsBank in Springfield. "We're not moving the bank."

The purchase was part of a 32-bank property sale to Presidio Investments Ltd. of Dallas. Included in the sale was the bank-owned parking garage south of the bank on McDaniel.

Though a sale price for the Springfield property was not disclosed, the 117 Park Central parcel and its lease were part of the security on a $114.5 million loan from Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Capital LLC to Argora Properties LP, of which Presidio is the managing general partner. The provisions of the loan were filed in the Greene County recorder's office April 22 when the deal was closed.

Three of the properties sold to Presidio were in Missouri, the two others

in St. Louis. Property in seven other states was part of the deal.

The Park Central bank building had been up for sale since fall 1997, Polonus said earlier this year.

She said in January that 75 percent of NationsBank properties around the country are leased. The sales, she said, allow NationsBank to free up capital otherwise tied up in real estate for its bank operations.

Tax records in Greene County show the three-story Park Central building has 34,085 square feet. Its true market value is estimated at $3.6 million by county assessors. The four-story parking garage, built in 1963, is valued at $727,600 by the county.

A spokesman for Presidio said the purchase was the first such transaction with NationsBank for the newly formed entity.

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