“We have a contract to purchase it, and it’s scheduled to close this week,” said Denise Ogan, in charge of development and acquisitions for Carlson Gardner Inc. of Springfield.

Carl Wilson of Carl Junction owns the Frisco Building, which has stood empty for 14 years.

Ogan said a clause in the contract prevents her from discussing certain provisions of the deal, including the price tag, until Carlson Gardner Inc. takes over the title to the building.

Preliminary plans for the first floor include leasing offices. The rest of the eight-story building would be used for apartments.

The building, built by the Frisco Railroad, opened in 1913. It was used as a train depot and for office space. The Frisco was sold to Financial Reserve Life Insurance Co. in 1956, and since then has had a succession of owners.

Ogan said Carlson Gardner Inc. will submit an application in October for Missouri Housing Development Commission money for the proposed project. The money would be awarded after January 2002.

Ogan said one has to have a contract for the land or a building to apply for money from the state housing commission.

“We’ll own the building before we even submit an application,” Ogan said.

Asked what would happen if state housing money were not awarded to Carlson Gardner Inc. for the project, Ogan said, “I can’t comment on that.”

John Joines, executive director of the Economic Security Corp. of the Southwest Area, said in early May that representatives of Carlson Gardner Inc. had contacted his office because the ESC has access to state and federal housing money that would be crucial for the developer to complete the renovation.

“We brought everybody to the table, and we brought the project to them (Carlson Gardner Inc.),” Joines said this weekend.

“I told them we had a building here, and there was interest in revitalizing it.”

Joines said Carlson Gardner Inc. will submit an application for state housing money, and the ESC will write letters of support to the governor and housing commission members on Carlson Gardner Inc.’s behalf.

Carlson Gardner Inc. representatives, Joines said, also will seek historic-preservation tax credits through the state in connection with its plans to renovate the building.

Joines said ESC personnel would be in the Frisco Building after the renovation to work with elderly and low-income residents of Barton, Jasper, Newton and McDonald counties.

Joines said the ESC is planning to submit an application for Community Service Block Grant money, through the Department of Social Services, to offer transportation to the mall, pharmacies and hospitals from the Frisco Building.

In addition to Carlson Gardner Inc., Mercy Housing Midwest of Omaha, Neb., and an unidentified local developer were interested in purchasing and renovating the Frisco Building into housing for senior citizens.

Tom Rice, Mercy Housing Midwest director, told Joplin civic leaders in May that his group was interested in the building, and that its proposed project would cost about $8 million.

Rice at the time said his company’s plans called for 60,000 square feet of the 72,000-square-foot building to be devoted to housing for senior citizens. The plans also called for 50, two-bedroom units.

Doris Carlin, a Joplin real-estate agent who has been working with the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce in finding a buyer for the Frisco, has said a Joplin developer was interested in the building, but she did not identify the developer.