Work has resumed full-speed at the $63 million, 268-unit Preserve at Sycamore Creek apartment complex in Osage Beach. The site had been mostly quiet for the first half of 2024, as financing hang-ups pushed subcontractors to other jobs.
Now, with the project back on track, the developer expects residents to be moving into the first units before the end of the year.
Allyn Witt, VP of Development for Tegethoff Development, the owner of the project, gave Lake Expo and Osage Beach Mayor Michael Harmison a tour of the units that are nearing completion.
PHOTOS: A Look Inside Lake Of The Ozarks New Apartment Complex, The Preserve At Sycamore Creek
photos by Nathan Bechtold
Chad Nugent, owner & CEO of Thomas Construction — the general contractor for the project — said he hopes to clear the air about what happened… and what didn’t happen.
Because for a while, the only thing about the project that seemed to be moving quickly was the rumor-mill.
Nugent said the project had been moving along well until the end of 2023. Then, as developer Jeff Tegethoff explained in a previous interview with Lake Expo, Nugent says the transition from owner-financing to bank-financing got bumpy.
“The goalpost kept moving for the bank to step in to the financing of the project,” Nugent explained. He told Lake Expo that due to the unique nature of this development — there being no comparable projects anywhere else in the region — the hurdles, headaches, and hoops to jump through seemed never-ending. The project financing had been approved, according to Tegethoff, but the financial institution kept requiring additional information before the money would be released.
“At this point in time, I have absolute, full confidence it was not the owner's issue. It was additional requirements — and it may not even have been the bank's issue — but it was additional requirements and regulations that forced the bank to get a tighter hold on the lending, is what I believe,” Nugent said.
“We were all at the mercy of the bank,” Nugent recalled. “Even the ownership… I could see the frustration in his eyes, like, ‘Guys, I, I've provided every wave of documentation needed.’”
“It wasn’t fun,” he said plainly.
He expressed his dismay at the misinformation in the community regarding the project stoppage, especially the rumor that Thomas Construction had demobilized from the project. “We at no point ever pulled our staff members,” he said. “In fact, during the whole process, and the confidence that Jeff [Tegethoff] gave me in the payments… we took steps to make sure that when the project started back up, we'd be ready to go.”
“We were in between 4 and 5 million behind, and the owner was paying certain things out-of-pocket to make sure the latest guys were covered and the guys that were hurting the most were covered as much as he could. So he had a lot of cash capital out-of-pocket. And then, you know, we have been in business for years. So we did our best — it’s all a judgment call — we did our best to make sure the smallest companies that couldn’t hold on as long as we could hold on or anybody else… they got paid so they could sustain their business.” He added, “A lot of these contractors that are on this project have been my personal friends for 15-plus years.”
Thomas Construction is licensed in 27 states, and has “boots on the ground” in nine of those, frequently building for Marriott Hotels. The company, which was founded in the Lake area, currently has around 70 staff members. “We’ve got some incredible team members, and husband-wife teams that have traveled for us for years and just absolutely love what they do,” Nugent said. “Really I couldn’t speak more highly of the staff that I have right now.”
Nugent praised developer Jeff Tegethoff, saying “Looking back now and seeing how [Tegethoff] reacted, I was like, man, if he had another project tomorrow I'd be there. Just because of the way he communicated… At one point, him knowing every subcontractor was pissed off about not getting money, we pull them all into a room and he addresses them personally. I've never heard of another owner [doing that].”
Nugent says his team recently gathered to debrief, discuss, and try to figure out what had happened. “We don't wanna get in this situation again, and we can't put the finger on any kind of blame source other than increased regulation and lending. That's the only thing that we can deduce it down to,” he said.
Nugent says as of now, all subcontractors have been paid in full, and in some cases they were even able to pay certain late fees to those businesses. They’re all satisfied, he said, and they’ve all returned to the project.
As subcontractors shifted crews back to the site, on Monday, June 17 Lake Expo spoke with Thomas Construction Project Supervisor John Rosipal. He said the process of ramping back up was tricky: since subcontractors stopped working at varying stages of the project, some elements of it were left out-of-sync. He said approximately 50 of the various subcontractors were back on site that week, noting electricians were in one of the buildings, installing ceiling fans. “It was a great project when it was going full-speed, and it’ll be a great project once it’s going again,” he ended.
It’s going full-speed again. Nugent says 100% of the subs are back on the job. They expect the first buildings to be completed in October, and many of the units are already reserved.
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