Answer Man: Reader spies an 'under contract' sign; what's happening at Highland Springs?

Steve Pokin
News-Leader
Answer Man: What's going on with the former sales office for the gated Highland Springs development? A sign says it's under contract.

Answer Man: Near the entrance to Highland Springs there is a building that has sat empty for a long time. It is now under contract. Can you check it out? What's moving in? — Roy Miller, of Rogersville

As the sign says, Roy, the transaction is not yet complete.

But if all goes well, as Matt M. Miller expects it to, in several months the former sales-office building at Highland Springs will become a second location for The City, a salon and spa with wellness studios.

In other words, stylists and beauticians will be able to rent space — or studios — in the 3,882-square-foot building.

Miller is a commercial real estate broker with the Closer's Agency, which is affiliated with Keller Williams Realty.

He was the broker involved in the purchase of the former Waco Title Co. building at 3256 S. Fremont Ave., where The City has its first location. The title company moved to a new location in June 2017.

The City, a salon and spa -- with wellness studios -- is in the former Waco Title Co. building at 3256 S. Fremont Ave. A second location for The City is planned for the building that once served as the sales office for the Highland Springs residential development.

"It has worked out really well," Miller says. "We have a waiting list for people who want to rent there."

The two buildings — the one on Fremont and the vacant one at 5000 S. Highland Springs Blvd. — have similarities, Miller says.

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Both, for example, have sections with high ceilings.

Stylist Nikki Diederich already runs The City on South Fremont. She would also operate the one at Highland Springs.

Nikki Diederich runs The City, a health and wellness salon on South Fremont Avenue.  She will bring stylists to the new location at Highland Springs, once the purchase of the former Highland Springs sales building is final.

Once the purchase closes, she says, it will take three to four months of construction to get the building ready.

She is excited about the second location.

"It's on the southeast side of town where everything is growing and it's close to everything," she tells me.

It would be her job to line up stylists to rent at Highland Springs.

Highland Springs, a gated community that is one of the more exclusive in Springfield, is a John Q. Hammons development off Highway 60.

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The first residential lots were sold in 1989. It has a golf course and a large country club. The course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., a renowned golf course architect.

Miller says he does not know how many years the former sales building has been vacant.

He is under contract to buy it from Atrium Hospitality, L.P., a hotel management company based in Alpharetta, Georgia.  

John Q. Hammons died in May 2013 at 94. His company's holdings went into bankruptcy proceedings.

Oddly enough, Miller says, the former sales-office building is outside Springfield city limits.

A reader recently noticed this "under contract" sign near the building that once served as the sales office for the Highland Springs residential development.

That's why he went before Greene County planning and zoning boards to have an amendment approved. It changed the wording of the parcel's deed.

The deed had severely limited what the building could be used for once its life as a sales office expired, Miller says.

In large part, it allowed for professional offices and little else.

Now, he says, a spa and salon can operate there.

He is confident such a business will do well.

"It is at one of the more prestigious residential developments in the city," Miller says. 

"It's visible from Highway 60 — and the building is really cool inside."

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Keep those questions coming. Send them to The Answer Man at 417-836-1253, spokin@gannett.com, on Twitter @stevepokinNL or by mail to 651 Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65806.