OPINION|
The five leasing signs in the parking lot of the Plaza Shopping Center at East Sunshine and South Glenstone indicate the center has seen better days.
The center has a long history in Springfield. In 1946, the Park-In Theatre was built. By the fall of 1948, the name had changed to the Tower Theater. The building still stands in the shopping center, although it has not been a movie theater since 1997.
I initially wondered if the current bare landscape is due to the fact Marco Denis has been sitting in the Phelps County jail since Aug. 29. Denis, who owns several properties in the shopping center, is in trouble with the law for allegedly kidnapping and assaulting a woman on July 14. He already had a history of domestic violence.
Dennis also owns Plaza Towers across the street.
What I’ve learned in talking to tenants is that Denis’ incarceration has little or nothing to do with the leasing signs in the parking lot.
Instead, the problem was two video-lottery-terminal game rooms in the center that have since been shut down by law enforcement. According to federal prosecutors, the game rooms led to other problems like assaults, robberies and drugs.
An armed robbery, for example, occurred at one of the game rooms at 5 a.m. Monday, Feb. 26.
Bar owner recently extended lease with Denis by 10 years
“There were a lot of homeless people and drug activity,” says Jennifer Stoops, who owns Bob & Ike’s Neighborhood Bar, which is at the south end of the center. She has worked there for five years and has owned it with her husband for three years.
Once the two gaming businesses were shut down in March, she tells me, the environment changed dramatically for the better.
“It’s amazing now,” she says.
In fact, she says, Denis is her landlord and since he’s been locked up, she extended her lease for 10 years.
For some businesses, she says, the change came too late. Avanzare Italian Dining, which had been at 1908 S. Glenstone Ave., left the center and constructed its own building at 3240 S. Fremont and opened in June.
Foot traffic at the shopping center has diminished since Avanzare left.
I reached out to the Avanzare owner and to staff but did not hear back by the time this column was published.
I also asked Gerald Zamora, one of the leasing agents with a sign up in the parking lot, if the vacancies were somehow connected to Dennis.
“There is no association that I know of,” he wrote via email. “The majority of the vacant spaces have been on the market for lease prior to July 2024.”
Keith Ostrander, who works at Cook’s Appliance, 1826 S. Glenstone, tells me he doesn’t pay much attention to what’s happening elsewhere in the center. Business has been good in the past at Cook’s; it’s good now; and he expects it to be good in the future.
Game room owners arrested Nov. 1 in Joplin
Rahulkumar Patel and Preston Bustillo owned the two gaming centers.
They have been charged with the federal crime of interstate travel in aid of racketeering. Their operation involved a New York resident, a Georgia-based business and multiple game rooms in Springfield and Joplin, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. They were arrested in Joplin Nov. 1.
Newsroom colleague Ryan Collins on Nov. 13 wrote about the alleged crime.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security led the investigation with help from Springfield and Joplin police, according to court records. The charges stem from an alleged illegal gambling operation that generated more than $9.5 million at locations in Springfield, Branson West and Joplin. Federal prosecutors say the men failed to pay taxes on most of that money.
During a months-long investigation that spanned multiple Missouri cities, authorities have laid out the formation of an illegal gambling enterprise by a Georgia-based business that had storefronts in Springfield. When a multi-agency investigation shut down the Springfield game rooms in March, the operation moved to a storefront in Joplin, according to court records.
Patel is being held in the Greene County Jail with no bond and faces up to 14 years imprisonment. Bustillo was released on a personal recognizance bond.
Denis’ lawyers file sealed documents to challenge his incarceration
Over the years, I’ve spoken to Denis, 49, a handful of times, most recently in April, when I wrote a story about his renovation of Plaza Towers and his short-term plans for finishing the revamp of the building.
Denis bought the 10-story Plaza Towers for $13.3 million in September of 2020, as well as the strip shopping center directly to the south (where Jersey Mike’s Subs is), and Jimm’s Steakhouse and Pub.
Plaza Towers appears to be in good shape — as far as I can tell.
I called the Sunshine Event Center at Plaza Towers on Dec. 2 and was told it is available for leasing.
Although Denis was able to post bond on the state charges of domestic assault and kidnapping, a federal magistrate has ordered he be held without bail on a federal charge of illegally possessing a firearm. The allegation is that he broke the law because he had previously been convicted of domestic assault.
His lawyers are disputing the validity of that federal charge. In a recent filing they were allowed to file their latest arguments “under seal,” meaning they are not available to the public — because they involve matters of a “sensitive nature.”
The alleged first-degree domestic assault is a class A felony and the alleged kidnapping is a class B felony. Denis has also been charged in state court with the class D felony of second-degree domestic assault and the class E felony of tampering with physical evidence.
While investigating the state domestic assault and kidnapping charges, authorities learned Denis owned several guns and that he pleaded guilty in 2003 to misdemeanor third-degree domestic assault.
This is Pokin Around column No. 234.
