An auction planned Friday for the financially troubled Gillioz Theatre in downtown Springfield, Mo., was postponed at least a week amid a pending agreement.
According to the Springfield News-Leader reported Friday:
“The Board of the Springfield Landmarks Preservation Trust has reached a significant milestone today,” board president Philip Rothschild said in an emailed statement. “As a result of our progress and agreement, Guaranty Bank has delayed the sale of the Netters-Gillioz property while we schedule finalization of the agreement over the next several days.”
Rothschild did not explain the “milestone” or “agreement.” But he said programming at the theater remains “business-as-usual.” […]
Rothschild said on Nov. 5 that Guaranty Bank, which loaned $4.3 million to the trust in April 2006 according to News-Leader archives, had “elected to call the mortgage on the property.” As a followup Thursday evening, Rothschild said in a email sent to local media that “Guaranty Bank should be in a position to verify the cancellation or postponement” of the auction by 10 a.m. today.
It was reported a few days ago that Ozarks Technical Community College was pursuing a possible buyout of the historic theater. Because the college’s president was conspicuously present at the Friday news conference, it seems likely a purchase agreement went through.
The Gillioz was built in 1926 on what became Route 66. It closed about 1990, but reopened in 2006 after years of renovations.
(Image of the lobby of the Gillioz Theater by the Missouri Division of Tourism, via Flickr)
Ron,
Has there been any word on the cause for the bank calling the mortgage? I’m “assuming” the trust has been delinquent in making payments, and forced the banks hand, but that detail is not stated anywhere.
Doing a little quick reading from a Google search on these clauses, there would seem to be plenty of legal protection for the Trust to prevent the call, unless they’ve done something to cause it.
Dave
Never mind…I found it at the bottom of the original newspaper story.
“As of mid-December 2010, $3.5 million of that was still not paid, and the bank filed a foreclosure notice over payments that had been delinquent for close to 900 days.
A foreclosure sale was scheduled Dec. 31 of that year.
At the time, then-board President Dave Roling said a potential donor was willing to pick up more than half the amount of the debt if the Springfield community would step up, and the trust announced a campaign to raise $500,000 in donations.
The trust filed for bankruptcy later that month, averting the sale. The campaign had raised about $200,000 at the time.
PACER, an online database of federal court records, indicates that the bankruptcy case was closed April 3, 2013.”