FDIC-OWNED WAREHOUSES NORTH OF CAPE GIRARDEAU SOLD TO LIPPS

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has accepted the latest offer of $2.6 million by Cape Girardeau businessman Jerry Lipps for two giant warehouse buildings north of Cape Girardeau.

At an October auction, the FDIC rejected Lipps' $2.3 million offer for the two 216,000-square-foot buildings that formerly served as Indian Creek Warehouses. They are near the Procter & Gamble Paper Products Co. plant.

The sale price of the property was announced Monday by Nancy Champagne of the Chicago FDIC office.

The property at 14916 State Highway 177 includes the two corrugated metal buildings. They were for sale as part of the final disposition of First Exchange Corp., a defunct bank-holding company that owned banking operations in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Fredericktown and St. Louis.

The subsidiary banks owned by First Exchange closed more than four years ago. The state commissioner of finance ordered all the banks closed and liquidated May 7, 1992.

Lipps had purchased a 6,000-square-foot service station and convenience store near the same place along Highway 177 at the FDIC auction last year.

Lipps had been leasing the 435-square-foot warehouse facilities, which are on a 30-acre tract, since the first of the year. Negotiations for the sale were finalized Friday.

Tom Kelsey, local commercial broker with Lorimont Place Ltd., Cape Girardeau, together with Danny Hyman, president of Brokerage Services with Benj. E. Sherman & Sons of Chicago, represented the FDIC in the transaction. Ivan Irvin of Century 21 Key Realty of Cape Girardeau represented the buyer in the sale.

Kelsey said that several local and outstate prospects inspected the property over the past several month. The asking price of the property had been $3,135,000.

The warehouses, identical in size, were constructed in late 1986 and early 1987. More than 10 acres are under roof.

Lipps has been operating the facility as a public warehouse with various local and national manufacturing tenants. Lipps also operates a trucking company that sends a lot of trucks into the P&G plant every week.

The service station and convenience store were built in 1987, and were previously operated as Your Store, featuring grocery items, a deli, restaurant and truck stop. The operation included showers and changing rooms for truckers, a built-in cooler and six fuel tanks.