Here is a long read from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Disney in the Ozarks: Flim-flam or front man?
NEOSHO, MO. The man promising a mysterious new venture arrived at the courthouse square in a yellow Corvette. The three Newton County commissioners took note of his flashy ride.
The visitor was stocky and bald. He wore a gray pinstripe suit. He was perspiring. He had tried to arrange this meeting with the county commission twice before without giving his name or divulging what he wanted. The commission refused. He relented, telling them why he wanted to meet, leading to this moment on April 12.
He said his name was Todd Marshall. He said he represented an outfit called ARM Risk. He wanted to talk about opening a theme park and resort. He never said the magic word "Disney." He didn't need to. Others soon made the connection for him.
Sitting at one end of a conference table, Marshall said he could not disclose whom he represented, but he was working to secure the rights to 1,000 acres in a corner of Newton County, just outside Joplin.
He slid a sheet of paper across the table. It contained a brief, yet ambitious, proposal: $1.7 billion to buy the land and build 10 hotels, 95 shops, 18 restaurants and 27 amusement rides. It promised to be a legendary project, even in this fast-changing southwestern corner of the state. It was a plan of Disney-esque proportions.
"So, are you excited?" Marshall asked, according to the commissioners.
They were not.
Jerry Carter, the lead commissioner, noted that the paper lacked a formal letterhead. This can't be real, he thought. "How crazy can this guy be?" commissioner Jack Sanders wondered.
The commissioners were curious why Marshall was even here. He didn't need their blessing. The county has no planning or zoning rules. A banker who happened to be at the meeting was skeptical, too. "I just found it odd," said Rudy Farber, head of Community Bank & Trust, who wondered why Marshall would want to broadcast his intentions.
The meeting lasted 30 minutes. Marshall left in his Corvette. It was the last time the county commission or just about anybody else would see him.
Right away, the Disney rumors hit the local papers and airwaves. And though Walt Disney Co. eventually denied involvement, the mystery has only deepened.
ARM Risk's purported owners haven't been located. The state attorney general's office says it is looking into the company, whose phone numbers were disconnected last week.
Some people doubt the acquisition if it is real is for a theme park at all.
And yet, landowners continue to sign options to sell their property, as the excitement builds. The dream of Disney refuses to fade. After all, some people say, Walt Disney grew up in Missouri. Speculation about a Disney park opening in Branson, just 85 miles away, has circulated for years. So why not here? Why not now?
For others, the whole affair has shades of "The Music Man," the classic Broadway musical about a con man who travels the Midwest promising to sell musical instruments. That story was turned into a TV movie a few years ago by a company named Disney.
A confidentiality pact
Tim Bender insists he didn't start the Disney hysteria. He says he's just a hired hand who, for various reasons, has fingerprints all over the deal.
One of Bender's companies is a legal research firm in Joplin with 12 employees, called AIS. He says his company was hired last year by a lawyer from St. Louis to research various parcels of land. He was not told who the client was, but he says he couldn't share that anyhow because he signed a confidentiality agreement.
His firm looked at land in Tulsa, Okla., Springfield, Mo., and two sites around Joplin. He says his firm paid others for engineering work and soil testing, expenses the law firm reimbursed "to keep it as anonymous as possible."
"They paid us pretty well," Bender says.
In March, the St. Louis lawyer had a new request, according to Bender, 35. The lawyer wanted Bender to file paperwork with the Secretary of State.
ARM Risk was established March 26 with a routine "fictitious name" registration. Bender's firm cut the $7 check for the filing fee, state records show. But the filing's return address lists another firm: "Atlas Risk" a company with ties to Bender.
From there, the tangle of companies becomes a knot. Bender says he used to own Atlas Risk, an employment background firm, until he sold it last year to another man. A call to the new owner of Atlas Risk confirms this. Bender says he can't explain how Atlas Risk ended up on the new filing.
"That was some screw-up on (the lawyer's) part," Bender says.
But there is one detail that Bender admits he has not disclosed, even to his mystery employer. Bender and his family own about 80 acres in the heart of the proposed theme park location. They stand to benefit if the deal goes through, or if the speculation causes land prices to jump.
"I'm from that area. I was familiar with it, so I did push for that area," Bender says, adding that he did not orchestrate the deal. He says he should tell Marshall that he owns some of the land, emphasizing that he has done nothing wrong.
"Where is the fraud?" he asks. "Nothing has been bought. Nothing has been sold."
Denial fans the flames
The connection to Disney was made shortly after Marshall left the courthouse.
ARM Risk's state filing can be found online and lists three owners:
Michael Hill, 2711 Centerville Rd., Wilmington, Del.
Robert Brown, 500 South Buena Vista St., Burbank, Calif.
Jason Johnson, Corporate Office, Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
The Burbank address is Disney's corporate office. Disney also has offices in Lake Buena Vista, near Disney World. And Delaware is a renowned haven for companies seeking to incorporate. "It looked like Disney was behind it," Carter said.
Carter takes pride in making county government open to the public, so when a local reporter called, Carter mentioned Marshall's visit.
The Joplin Globe published a story April 19 under the headline: "Disney rumors resurface," referring to false rumors of Disney parks' coming to other counties stretching back to the early 1990s. The Springfield News-Leader followed with a story two days later.
The Walt Disney Co. only fanned the rumor's flames by declining to comment. Last Monday, the tight-lipped Disney Co. finally opened up a little.
"We have no plans for a theme park in Missouri," Disney spokesman Donn Walker told the Post-Dispatch.
Disney has employees with the names "Robert Brown" and "Jason Johnson." However, those employees do not work in any capacity related to theme park development, according to a Disney official, who spoke on the condition his name was not used.
Everything about the Newton County land deal screamed that the Walt Disney Co. was not involved, the official said. "This is bogus and bunk," the official said of a potential Disney investment in Newton County.
After all, the official noted, this was a company that back in the 1960s managed to acquire the land for Disney World in Florida without anybody's getting wind of it. Disney wouldn't be so sloppy that the company's interest could be easily discovered. "It simply defies logic and reason," the official said.
The mailing address for ARM Risk lists an address with a suite number, but the suite is a mailbox at a UPS Store sandwiched between a nail salon and an appliance shop in a strip mall in Springfield. Todd Marshall rented the box, according to a store employee.
As the UPS Store's promotional materials make clear, a mailbox rental provides the "prestige of a street address with your personal number."
But using the address to register with Missouri may be a violation of state law. The secretary of state requires a physical business address, not a post office box.
Skepticism, speculation
Despite the swirling doubts, Allyn Burt presses on.
He runs Charles Burt Realtors in Joplin. About six weeks ago, a man walked into his office, Allyn Burt recalls. The visitor said he needed help acquiring one-year contracts with first-right-of-refusal to buy 1,000 acres in Newton County. But it would not be easy there might be as many as 400 different landowners.
The man said he was Todd Marshall, a representative of ARM Risk. The meeting lasted 30 minutes. Burt never saw Marshall again.
Burt was instructed to tell people the land was being acquired for an amusement park and was given a formula for calculating offers.
Marshall said he would pay Burt nothing up front only a commission if the deal went through. "I was skeptical," Burt says. "I've never done anything like this."
Since then, Burt has been working his way door-to-door making offers. A copy of the four-page contract obtained by the Post-Dispatch shows landowners are asked to enter into a contract with ARM Risk LLC although no such limited liability company is registered in Missouri. The company address traces back to the same UPS Store.
No titles have changed hands, but Burt says he has obtained signatures to 60 percent of the necessary acreage. Although the negative publicity has not hurt business, Burt says he is not sure what to believe.
"I've tried to figure out if this is real or not," he says. "And I go up and down, day by day, minute by minute."
Bonnie Engberg, 26, and her husband live in the proposed park location. They have discussed what they plan to do when they get an offer. They bought their four acres with a house for $98,000 four years ago. Engberg says she has heard of neighbors' getting $350,000 for six acres. She is reluctant to move.
"But my husband said that if they'd offer us $350,000, we'd sell in a heartbeat," she says.
A call then silence
The objections by the Walt Disney Co. caused Marshall to resurface late last week by phone.
He says he is calling from Springfield. His phone number has a South Florida area code. He says he is in the land acquisition business and commutes between Springfield and Orlando. In fact, he plans to fly to Orlando this very night. He says he owns a yellow Corvette, a black Corvette, a boat and a BMW.
He plays down any connection with Disney. "I don't know where this Disney is coming from. It's just a rumor," he says, adding, "Nobody said the 'D' word, not at all."
He says he doesn't understand why everyone is talking about this. He calls his meeting with the county commissioners "not a big deal." He says he never intended for it to go public.
After 10 minutes on the phone Thursday, he agrees to meet in person. He says he will contact the owners of ARM Risk and put the Post-Dispatch in touch with them. He says to call about "3-ish" that afternoon in Springfield to arrange a meeting.
As of Saturday, he hasn't answered numerous calls from the Post-Dispatch.
Done talking
Meanwhile, the county commissioners are still dealing with the Disney rumors. No amount of skepticism seems to cool interest.
"There is something going on here whether it is the real estate people trying to stimulate prices, or a small amusement park or something else," Carter says, exasperated at how the rumors persist. "Maybe they're going to put a casino boat on Shoal Creek."
"They could," commissioner Jerry Black offers dryly. "The water is up a little bit."
Carter and the two other commissioners then begin tackling the more mundane business of opening bids and talking about road improvements. But several times they are interrupted by the ringing phone.
At one point, the commission secretary answers and muffles the receiver against her chest. She says a man wants to talk about the theme park, but he doesn't want to give his name.
"Then I don't want to talk to him," Carter says.
He is done talking about Disney.
