By LISA SIMPSON STRANGE
Glasgow Daily Times
GLASGOW —
A Glasgow shopping center that had lost the majority of its tenants during the last few years after one of the anchor stores relocated to Veterans Outer Loop may be getting a second chance at renewed life.
Local businessmen have purchased the Barren River Plaza shopping center on L. Rogers Wells Boulevard, where Walmart was located before moving to its current location at the intersection of Ky. 90 and the outer loop.
The sale of the property was filed at the office of Barren County Clerk Joanne London on July 19. According to documents obtained from the clerk’s office, LBUBS 2002-C1 Glasgow LLC, sold the center to two newly formed limited liability corporations, Bypass Development LLC and Barren River Plaza Project LLC.
Bypass Development purchased 12.421 acres of the center for $2.3 million and Barren River Plaza Project purchased 15.804 acres for $875,000.
The seller, based out of Miami Beach, Fla., and managed by LNR Partners Inc., was the financial lender for the property. The registered agent for that entity was CT Corporation System of Frankfort, according to records of business filings from Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson’s website.
Attorneys Bobby Richardson and Rich Alexander of the local law firm Richardson, Gardner, Barrickman & Alexander, drew up articles of organization for the two local limited liability corporations and became their registered agents on June 28 of this year and then filed the paperwork with Grayson’s office on July 1 prior to completion of the sales on July 19.
Richardson had no comment about the transactions.
“I have nothing to say,” he said, when questioned about the new owners or the formation of the corporations.
Alexander was unavailable for comment.
But Paul Ray Smith, with NAI Isaac Commercial Real Estate Services, Worldwide, of Lexington, the management and leasing agents for the new owners, confirmed Thursday that he was working with Larry D. Glass and Pat Vann on the project.
Smith was in town Thursday showing the former Goody’s location in the center to a prospective tenant and he said a lease for that space is pending.
“We’re very excited to be working with them (Glass and Vann). They’re long-term managers and local,” Smith said.
Improvements to the center to attract new tenants are planned including landscaping, work on the parking lot and new signage, according to Smith.
“We’re looking for a mix of retail and non-retail businesses that will bring jobs to Barren County,” he said.
Store manager Beau Black of Peebles, one of the few remaining retail businesses in the center, said Thursday he was aware of the sale of the property and had alerted his corporate headquarters when he found out.
“It’s wonderful that it’s sold and it’s still local,” he said.
Black declined to comment further on the new owners or what changes might be coming.
Two employees at Mary Anne’s Hallmark said they were unaware of the purchase, but noticed about a month ago a space adjacent to them had been cleaned and the locks changed.
The former owner of the center, who was the lender for the foreclosure property, was happy to keep the status quo, according to Smith.
“They just wanted to keep it the same – not lose tenants – but not really try to get any new tenants until they were able to sell it. They accomplished that,” he said.
The new owners will bring a different game plan to the management of the center and will be recruiting heavily, according to Smith.
“They have a very strong vision of how they want that to play out,” he said. “We’re aggressively pursuing prospective tenants. The new owners are looking for all shapes and sizes. We’re very optimistic about the future of Barren River Plaza.”
Ernie Myers, executive vice president of the Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce, agreed the businessmen will work hard to recruit new stores to Glasgow.
“I believe that the new owners of that center are not buying (it) in order for the center to just sit there and not be a viable place. There’s no doubt that they have plans there and I don’t know what those are. I can’t speak to that. I can speak to the fact that they’re not going to let that place just sit there and rot as it has in the past five years. They’re highly motivated to fill that space and I know that’s what’s in their minds – to do just that,” he said.
Myers had been talking periodically during the past five years with a large commercial business dealing in agricultural products about coming to Glasgow and locating in the old Walmart space. Negotiations had progressed through the late spring and early summer and Myers said they were close to signing a deal when he found out the center had been sold.
“Am I disappointed about what transpired? Yeah, I am because I sure did want (that business) here. That’s a place that’s going to employ about 100 people. It would be nice to have them in the community and it fits. They would be long-timers,” he said.
But he said there is still a chance the business will relocate to Barren County.
“The property in which they were interested has become unavailable. That doesn’t mean that the company is less interested in us. It will just make it harder to locate in Glasgow and Barren County. They’re still interested if they can find a suitable location,” Myers said.
The chamber is also working with more than one additional company currently about opening businesses locally, he said.
When asked about the timing of the sale of the center property, Myers was philosophical.
“It’s rather much of a coincidence. I don’t know why that happens, but it happens. Free enterprise is free enterprise ... It is what it is,” he said.
Vann spoke to Metcalfe Fiscal Court about a month ago and specifically requested the release of that county’s unused Recovery Zone Facility Bonds in the amount of $173,000 to Barren County to aid in offering incentives to a prepackaging pharmaceutical operation to be located in the old Walmart building according to the minutes of a previous fiscal court meeting. See Gina Kinslow’s story in today’s edition for further information.
Neither Vann nor Glass returned phone calls before press time requesting information about their plans for developing the shopping center.
