Lake Business: Family ties and accomplishments of Gary Prewitt

Developer Gary Prewitt and his family have deep roots in the Lake of the Ozarks area.

His great-grandfather migrated from Kentucky to the banks of the Osage River at the turn of the 19th Century to farm and raise a family. In the late 1920s, Prewitt’s grandfather was among the more than 20,000 workers who cleared the trees under what would become Lake of the Ozarks. When Bagnell Dam was completed in 1931 he opened a general store at the intersection of highways 42 and 54, sowing the seeds of one of the Lake’s most successful retail developments.

Prewitt’s parents raised four boys in a rock house on that same property -- boys who played on the lake, went to college and led successful lives.

Prewitt graduated the University of Central Missouri with a degree in aviation technology, leading to a career as a pilot for a cargo company and then Trans World Express, a commuter airline.

In 1980, Prewitt returned to Lake of the Ozarks and took over operation of a number of family enterprises including a car-sales business, a mobile-home business and a residential development. The man who would become one of the Lake’s most prolific developers was on his way.

By the late 1990s the Lake area was changing dramatically. The year-round population was growing steadily and a bypass that had been a dream for two decades was on the verge of becoming reality.

With little more than a large tract of family land at the intersection of highways 54 and 42 and the nerve to take a risk, Prewitt launched a plan to build a major retail development.

Today Prewitt’s Pointe Shopping Center is home to major national retailers and generates sales tax that fuels the Lake community.

During the same decade in his life Prewitt capitalized on one of his favorite hobbies and became a successful waterfront bar/grille/live-music venue owner as well. Taking over a couple of quiet waterfront bars he turned Backwater Jacks and the Gator Complex into two of the Lake’s hottest spots.

He has been involved in multifamily housing developments including apartments and condominiums and also spends a great deal of time and financial resources promoting the Lake Area as an entertainment destination.

Now, Prewitt is moving forward with another major retail development, The Shop’s at Eagles’ Landing, which will be home to Menards, Kohls, CVS Pharmacy, and a number of the nation’s other top retailers. In the process of developing the Eagles’ Landing project, Prewitt succeeded in persuading MoDOT to change the Highway 54 bypass plan to create an interchange through Lake Ozark proven more user friendly and allowing for the hookup of the bypass to Highway 242.

The initial Missouri Department of Transportation plan for the bypass/Highway 54 intersection on the lake’s east side did not include east/west access.

Prewitt began working with MoDOT as early as 2007 to initiate a plan that would resolve these issues. At a cost of over $300,000, Prewitt contracted and submitted to MoDOT a design for the interchange that would significantly improve traffic flow and provide access to development property on both sides of the highway. The agreement eventually worked out and MoDOT handed over construction of the interchange to the developer, a move that resulted in millions of dollars in savings to taxpayers over state estimates. This allowed the project to go forward even as the national economy stumbled and MoDOT funds decreased.

Prewitt’s company RIS Inc. handled every phase of the interchange project except the construction of a bridge and surfacing of the roadway. In the end, the state spent $12 million on the project. The Prewitt/MoDOT agreement included $10.5 million in like-kind value provided by the developer.

“This is the first time in Missouri history that a negotiation with a private entity saved the state this kind of money on a highway project,” Prewitt said.

As negotiations over the interchange continued, MoDOT named Highway 54 corridor project manager Kenneth Voss liaison between Prewitt and the MoDOT central office. While Voss says each project around the state is unique, he believes the Prewitt interchange negotiations and the positive outcome provide an example that is helpful in working out other, similar partnerships. Voss agrees that the Prewitt redesign of the interchange facilitated the Highway 242 project and saved the state millions of tax dollars.

The newly designed interchange made access to commercial property owned by others north of the interchange possible. Because a link between the new interchange and the end of Horseshoe Bend Parkway was feasible in the new design, Highway 242 will soon link some of the lake’s most populous areas on Horseshoe Bend and across the toll bridge on Shawnee Bend to the new highway system, likely increasing property values in all those areas.