Springfield bank buys Marquette for $3.6 million

Vaughn Prost on Tuesday silently gave up the struggle to hold onto the Marquette Tower and Marquette Centre in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Prost said nothing as he watched Peter Riggs, a lawyer with Stinson, Morrison and Haeckler of Kansas City, announce the foreclosure sale of the historic buildings and bid $3.6 million on behalf of Great Southern Bank of Springfield, Mo. The bank, Prost's main creditor in the rehabilitation of the building, was the sole bidder in the sale.

The Marquette Tower, with 66,117 square feet of space, is occupied by a first-floor restaurant and offices of eight state agencies. The state offices rent 30,844 square feet of the building at 338 Broadway.

The Marquette Centre, a former Southeast Missouri State University printing plant with 11,662 square feet, is unoccupied.

Prost Builders Inc., Prost's company, purchased the Marquette Tower in 2002 for a reported $350,000. At the time, it was under a city order for demolition or sale. Originally opened as a hotel in 1928, the building had sat vacant since 1981. The hotel ceased operations in 1971.

Prost estimated his company had invested $10 million in renovating the two buildings, far above the $6 million previously reported. As part of his renovation project, Prost received state and federal tax credits for historic preservation and environmental remediation tax credits.

Great Southern Bank loaned Prost increasing amounts over the two years of renovation, starting with $4 million in 2003 and eventually reaching just under $7 million, according to documents in the Cape Girardeau County recorder of deeds office.

After the sale, Prost blamed an inability to find private tenants or obtain sufficient commitments from the state government to keep the buildings solvent.

"From the start, when the doors first opened, I had been feeding money into the buildings," he said. "I fed in almost $1 million, and I can't feed it anymore."

Prost noted that Cape Girardeau and Jackson have ample office space available on the market as competition.

State officials have also watched the foreclosure closely and reported last week that negotiations are underway that could result in the property coming under state ownership. State leases on 52,125 feet of office space in Cape Girardeau expire within 12 months.

Prost had put the buildings on the market last October, asking $4.5 million for the Marquette Tower and $1.4 million for the Marquette Center.

In recent months, he'd sought to sell the properties to the buildings' main tenant, the state of Missouri.

"I've tried to talk to them, but they were not ready to make a decision," he said. "Unfortunately for me, that is just the way it is."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

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