Springfield Howard Johnson to close

The Howard Johnson Hotel and Conference Center on South Glenstone Avenue is slated to close next month.

Lance Watson, controller for hotel owner Morris Group Properties Inc., confirmed the property would close Sept. 8 due to a sale.

"It's sold. It's under contract," Watson said, declining to disclose the buyer. "It is not somebody local, and I believe ... the building's going to come down. They're actually putting a new retail facility in there."

He referred further comment to attorney Brett Roubal of Baird, Lightner, Millsap & Harpool PC, who is handling the transaction for the Morris Group. Roubal could not be reached this afternoon.

Ozarks Model Railroad Association officials received word of the closure this week when hotel officials said they could not host the group's annual fall show, booked for Sept. 28. Greg Sullivan, the organization's fall chairman, said the event has moved to the downtown Springfield Expo Center and will be held on the same date.

"They've been coordinating with the Expo Center with ours and several other events," Sullivan said.

The Morris Group rebranded the 192-room 3333 S. Glenstone Ave. hotel as Howard Johnson after assuming back control of the property in October 2011. Springfield businessman Jim D. Morris' company had owned the former Clarion property for seven years before selling to a California investor group in a December 2008 owner-financed $6 million deal, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

The investor group, doing business as Glenstone Enterprises LLC, was unable to make its payments and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2010, leaving the Morris Group the opportunity to own the property again.