Prospective buyer of former Regal Beloit property backs out

The party that was under contract to purchase the former Regal Beloit manufacturing plant on East Sunshine Street in Springfield has backed out of the deal.

“After about seven months of work, the due diligence of the buyer failed, so the property is back on the market,” David Murray, president of commercial and real estate services company R.B. Murray, told the News-Leader Thursday afternoon.

The 43-acre 2401 E. Sunshine St. property, which housed Regal Beloit manufacturing operations through February, went under contract earlier this year. Murray told the News-Leader in May that the potential buyer was exploring the feasibility of demolishing the plant to make way for a retail center; he declined to name the party, but said they had a “substantial track record,” with over 70 million square feet of space in their development portfolio.

“They just could not get what they needed for the redevelopment of the site,” Murray said Thursday, adding that he didn’t feel he could be more specific than that.

Murray had been hopeful the project would turn a “tired old plant into an economic engine” for the city, potentially luring retailers that don’t already have a presence in Springfield.

“There was a lot of work on this one,” he said.

The property is listed by R.B. Murray at $11 million. The land and building are appraised at $8.24 million by the Greene County Assessor's Office.

When it opened in 1959, the facility manufactured typewriters for Royal McBee. When the company ceased operations there 10 years later, General Electric purchased the plant and began manufacturing motors used in heating and cooling equipment.

Regal purchased the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration operations of General Electric — which included the Springfield plant and four others — in 2004. About 330 people were employed at the Springfield plant when the company announced in 2013 it would gradually cease operations at the facility over the next 18 months.