A longtime Springfield massage school located on Commercial Street lost its accreditation and will close its doors at the end of the year. The building where it is located has been put up for sale.
Juliet Mee, owner of the Professional Massage Training Center, Inc., confirmed to the News-Leader that she lost a lengthy battle to maintain accreditation and is no longer accepting new students. The center was also placed on a federal “watch list” for higher education institutions with shaky financial stability.
“We are not planning to continue the massage school,” she said.
Mee, who started the school in 1994, is attempting to sell the 10,000-square-foot building at 229 E. Commercial St. where the training center is located, as well as two nearby buildings.
“Yes, the buildings are for sale,” she said. “We are getting ready to transition our facility.”
Mee said once the massage school closes in December, she plans to open “a spa” and would like to stay on Commercial Street — but she said her current buildings are too large for what she is going to need in the new endeavor.
The school had operated under a stamp of approval from the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, or ACCSC.
Mee said the school has been involved in a “protracted lawsuit against our accrediting agency” and was “accredited by court order” from 2012 to mid-2015, when the school lost its appeal.
According to Mee, there are still 20 students in the massage school and because they enrolled while it was still accredited, they are allowed to complete their program. She said the school will continue to operate until December.
“We can’t bring in any new students,” she said.
The agency issued a public notice Sept. 3 declaring the school’s accreditation had been withdrawn. A 2012 letter, from the agency to Mee, was attached to the notice and shows the agency identified “a number of issues centered around the management and administrative capacity of the school” in a late-2009 review.
This year, the U.S. Department of Education identified the massage school as one of more than a dozen Missouri colleges and training programs requiring an additional layer of oversight known as “heightened cash monitoring.”
At the time, Mee told the News-Leader she wasn’t surprised the school was on the list because of it had recently changed the way it tracked and reported student debt.
Three of Mee’s properties are listed for sale with Murney Associates Realtors, including the headquarters of the massage school. The other buildings include the 1,800-square-foot Therapy Linen Care, on Pacific Street, and the 4,700-square-foot storefront building, near the massage center, which is currently leased to Drury University.
Drury spokesman Mike Brothers recently sent a news release for an Oct. 2 event at the building, where the university’s C-Street Gallery is located, and noted that he has received questions about the “for sale” sign.
The space houses the university’s weaving studio and is used by students in architecture and entrepreneurship studies.
“Drury does not own the building. It is being sold by the current owner,” Brothers wrote. “Drury maintains a long-term lease there and has no plans to change the space at this time.”
Mee confirmed the university has an “extensive lease” with options to sever ties at various points in the contract.
Here are details of the three properties up for sale:
•229 E. Commercial St. — The two-story building, constructed in 1884 and renovated in 2000, is home to the massage school. It includes classrooms, kitchens, storage, bathrooms, offices, a private storefront and street-level access to the second floor. It is listed for $625,000.
•233 E. Commercial St. — The one-story building constructed in 1954 and renovated in 2011 has a long-term lease with Drury. It is listed for $332,500.
•225 E. Pacific St. — The one-story building, constructed in 1972, is home to a commercial laundry. It includes two storefronts, two bathrooms and more than 20 parking spaces. It is listed for for $250,000.
