Marquette Tower faces foreclosure

If the owners of the Marquette Tower in Cape Girardeau don't cut a new deal with their bank or find a buyer for the office building within three weeks, it will be sold at a foreclosure auction.

Prost Builders of Jefferson City, Mo., purchased the historic building at 338 Broadway in 2002. The company used taxpayer support to renovate the ailing structure. After spending a reported $350,000 to purchase the old hotel building that faced demolition and investing $6 million in renovations, Prost is in "default in the payment of debt and performance of obligations" of the construction loans, according to a legal notice printed Wednesday in the Southeast Missourian.

SMF Registered Services Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., is acting as trustee for the loans provided by the Great Southern Bank of Springfield, Mo.

Prost also owns the nearby Marquette Centre at 221 N. Fountain St., the former Southeast Missouri State University printing plant.

Both buildings have been for sale since October. The company is asking $4.5 million for the Marquette Tower and $1.4 million for the Marquette Centre.

Cape Girardeau real estate broker Tom M. Meyer, who handles leasing and the sales listing for the buildings, said the notice of foreclosure was advertised "because the bank is wanting to make some adjustments and the developers are at odds with what their agreement would be."

Meyer said he expects an agreement to avoid foreclosure will be reached soon. Or, he said, the differences may become moot because of interest from potential purchasers, Meyer said. "We have a couple of buyers looking at it very seriously. They are in negotiation now."

If no agreement can be reached, the two properties will be sold in a foreclosure auction scheduled for March 20 at the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson.

Prost operates the Marquette properties under the company name Marquette Office Building LLC. Vaughn Prost, president of Prost Builders Inc. did not return a call seeking comment.

A message left in the special assets department of Great Southern Bank was not returned.

The renovation of the Marquette Tower and Marquette Centre was supported by a combination of state and federal tax credits for historic preservation and environmental remediation.

The Marquette Tower has 66,117 square feet, of which 30,844 square feet is leased directly to state agencies, with additional space leased by agencies contracting to support state functions. The ground floor also has an operating bar and restaurant.

The Marquette Centre is unoccupied. The 11,662-square-foot building was extensively renovated but not subdivided into individual offices.

When Prost purchased the Marquette, it had been empty for more than 20 years. The hotel portion closed in 1971; the last tenant, a piano store, closed in 1981. As the building deteriorated, the city began to push for a sale or demolition and in 2000 ordered the owner at the time, Carol Bullock, to repair, sell or demolish the building within 120 days.

Meyer declined to discuss details of the default. "All I could comment is that there is some disagreement," he said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126