Legacy Bank buys shuttered Meek’s property

Legacy Bank & Trust Co. purchased a former Meek’s Lumber Co. property with plans for a new branch.

Brett Magers, the bank’s executive vice president and chief lending officer, said the plans are still in their infancy but the company has received regulatory approvals for a full-service branch at 3250 E. Sunshine St. Meek’s had operated a lumber and supply store on the property until it closed last year.

Terms of the deal were undisclosed. R.B. Murray Co. President Ross Murray, whose company brokered the deal, provided marketing materials showing the 2.4-acre property had been listed for $2.6 million. The warranty deed on file with the Greene County recorder does not list a note amount for the transaction.

Magers said Rogersville-based Legacy Bank has not yet hired a general contractor or architect for the branch plans near U.S. Highway 65. Legacy Bank currently has seven branches, including a Springfield location on South National Avenue.

“We were excited to get the opportunity to purchase the property,” he said of the Meek’s acreage. “It’s just a perfect location on the east side of town.”

Magers said plans call for the demolition of current structures on the property.

It's the second real estate move by Legacy Bank in the past year. The company in December 2018 purchased a roughly 4,000-square-foot office condominium on East Republic Road to use as administrative space. In an interview in May, Legacy Bank President and CEO John Everett told SBJ the company had no plans for another physical location.

The closure of the Meek’s store came less than two months after the company was purchased in 2018 by California private investment firms Angeles Equity Partners LLC and Clearlake Capital Group LP, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.