By DAVID MARTIN
This week's column explores the trials and tribulations of an Olathe-based bank whose founder is of the mind that Jesus winks at the deposits as they come in. The bank, Security Savings, has posted losses in recent quarters, and investors in the bank's holding company have filed a lawsuit claiming fraud.
One source of the bank's problems is a 2004 loan made to a development in Greenwood, off Missouri Highway 150. The developer, Benny Vance, planned to build homes, ranging in price from $300,000 to $700,000, around a golf course. Security Savings lent the project more than $8 million.
Works installed streets and infrastructure to accommodate 75 lots. Five houses (and nine golf holes) were completed. Then the money ran out.
Today, the site resembles the establishing shot of the forlorn model home in the TV comedy Arrested Development.
I reached Vance. She faults the bank, which she says did not extend her the additional credit she needed. "It shouldn't be where the project is now," she says. "It looks sad."
Security Savings took control of the land in 2007. A few months ago, the bank sold a portion of the property to the Missouri Department of Conservation. The James A. Reed Memorial Wildlife Area is nearby. In the end, sprawl's loss will be nature's gain.
And Jesus, He's thinking that stocks look cheap.
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