by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Matt Maynor was mad and Paul Shockey was confused.
Both wanted the same thing, but the banker couldn’t explain to the business owner why his businesses, his personal property and — for all intents and purposes, his livelihood — were in jeopardy. The legal/banker lingo Maynor was using wasn’t getting through and Shockey’s admitted stubbornness wasn’t helping.
“He is the only customer I have ever got on the phone with and just screamed at,” said Maynor, who’s vice president of First Guaranty. “It was a very loud discussion.”
Shockey owns Uptown Market, the Burrito Gallery and a condominium in Springfield near Shands Jacksonville. His business portfolio was making money, but his personal investments — his house and a church on North Market Street he and his wife bought and were in the process of renovating — were the problem.
The time of year — the conversation was a day or two before Christmas in 2008 — and the heavy legal jargon was only making matters worse. Combined with the it being the height of the foreclosure crisis in the country, it’s easy to understand the severity of the stress level on both sides. Maynor quickly realized the two needed a short cooling off period.
“I told him to go to Texas and see his family and enjoy the holidays,” he said, and the two agreed to meet again Jan. 7. “I knew we were both going to lose something, but I said if we work together we make this viable for your other projects. Jan. 7, he had a completely different attitude and he was open to what I was proposing.”
Shockey admits he was trying to work through his financial issues without the assistance of an attorney. Maynor could have brought one in, but he has a policy that he won’t unless the client uses an attorney. So, for the better part of two hours, Maynor and Shockey sat at a table and went through each loan and each document and talked in layman’s terms.
The result has been painstaking and it has taken a year. But, Shockey is better off and so is Maynor. Shockey has sold the church he was renovating and expects to close this week. He also opened Uptown Market about four months ago and is seeing business get better with time.
“This is the first new development in Springfield in 30 years,” said Shockey, who worked with developers Bill and Barbara Cesery on the 40,000 square-foot mixed-use development that includes the street level restaurant and 38 apartments on the top two floors that are rented by patients at the Proton Beam Therapy Institute at Shands.
“This is our 116th day,” said Shockey, adding he’ll stop counting “as soon as I don’t have to sweat the payroll.”
Shockey credits First Guaranty and its willingness to work with local small businesses when others wouldn’t return his calls.
“They are not only a community bank, but they all know me by name,” said Shockey. “Without them, I’d be in a lot more trouble than I am in today. They gave me the breathing room to recoup and at the same time bring this (Uptown Market) on-line. I was a wreck and I am not totally out of the water yet.”
Maynor said the experience has helped reinforce the human element of the banking transaction. In Shockey, he had a client who owned businesses, homes and had a family. But, he didn’t fully understand Shockey’s personal investment.
“When I look at someone’s portfolio, I am not emotionally tied to it,” said Maynor. “Paul taught me that he was emotionally tied and frozen with fear and the dream he had. He didn’t know how to ‘undream’.”
Shockey simply had too much in everything to let things dissolve.
“When you have three years of backbreaking labor in something, it’s hard to walk away,” he said. “I had to learn to stop throwing good money after bad.”
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