The Kansas City chapter of the Urban Land Institute is spearheading a new initiative to promote the advancement of women by raising the visibility and number of women leaders in ULI and the real estate industry as a whole. The Women’s Leadership Initiative on Tuesday hosted a panel of some of the most influential women in Kansas City’s real estate scene: Melanie Mann of Park Place Partners, Suzy Aron of Aron Real Estate, and Ora Reynolds, newly minted CEO of Hunt Midwest.
Phil Algrim of JLL, Paul Fogel of Karbank, Mike Bell of Hunt Midwest, and Whitney Kerr Jr. of DTZ.
NorthPoint Development has been one of the strongest players on the industrial scene, and is currently working on delivering to the market its latest industrial buildings in Logistics Park Kansas City in Edgerton. In about a week, the shell will be complete on its latest building, Inland 11 – a 657,354-square-foot building that took a whopping four months to complete.
“And the interesting thing is that it went up over the winter,” JLL Senior Vice President Phil Algrim said. “We started in November and in four months, it’s done. That shows you the economies of scale and the rapid deployment of capital and building out here.”
Inland 11 will soon be home to Kubota Tractor Corporation, a machinery and equipment distributor, which will take 436,000 square feet. Inland 12 is underway as well, scheduled to be completed by March or April.
Algrim says Kansas City’s biggest strength and a big driver of the activity has been its ability to hit more of a population total than other centrally located cities. Within 1,000 miles of Kansas City, 161 million people can be reached within 2 to 3 days. That’s a greater population density than what it would be in Washington D.C., Chicago, or Dallas.
Within a 1,000-mile range of Kansas City, companies can deliver their products to 161 million people within 2 to 3 days.
Hunt Midwest is seeing no shortage of activity either, and has benefitted from the expansion of the automotive and e-commerce industries here. Mike Bell, Hunt Midwest’s vice president and general manager of industrial commercial development, says the company is looking at 800 million square feet of future development of Class B buildings in the 1300-acre Subtropolis.
By locating in Kansas City, companies like Food Service Warehouse are finding faster and more cost-efficient means of distribution, contributing to staggering growth numbers. Bell says Food Service Warehouse is growing at a rate of 200 percent of year.
Hunt Midwest has aggressive plans to expand.
“They reason they chose our location – and this is important for Kansas City – that FedEx and UPS terminals in relation to airport are very important for e-commerce,” he said. “The speed for an e-commerce company to get their product to a consumer, that’s what drives revenues.”
But there’s an important segment of the industrial market that’s often overlooked: Class B industrial properties. Paul Fogel, vice president at Karbank, says that while his company does have a few smaller 100,000-square-foot Class A buildings, it’s really Class B buildings that constitute the bulk of Kansas City’s overall market. But most importantly, the asset class brings stability.
While the bulk of Karbank’s portfolio is made up of Class B warehouses, it does market a few Class A properties, like this 108,000-square-foot building in the Northland. More info here.
“The staying power of Class B industrial cannot go understated. There’s a lot of it in Kansas City and one of the reasons you’re seeing a lot of local real estate historically owned by a very limited number of families in Kansas City is because these things lease, they’re stable, and rent goes up every time you renew the lease,” Fogel said. “You don’t have the difficulty of carpet and paint every three years with brokers parachuting in and negotiating more improvements. These things are incredibly stable, and that’s why they’ve stayed as a mainstay in our portfolio.”
A huge indicator of Class B’s strength? Its vacancy rate in Kansas City hovers at about 6 percent, Fogel says.
The Groundhog Run, hosted at Hunt Midwest Subtropolis, is one of the most popular races in the country, with the tunnels staying a consistent 65 to 68 degrees. Photos courtesy of Hunt Midwest/Children’s TLC.
It’s year number 33 for one of the most popular races in the country, held underground right here in Kansas City. This weekend, Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development will host the 33rd annual Groundhog Run at Subtropolis, the world’s largest underground business park. The park, which was created by mining its 270 million-year-old limestone, is a comfortable track for runners as it is consistently 65 to 68 degrees year round – a huge perk to its tenants.
Proceeds of the event go to Children’s TLC, a local therapeutic preschool and outpatient therapy clinic serving children with disabilities, developmental disabilities and fragile medical conditions. The race serves as the organization’s largest fundraiser. In fact, since the race started in 1982, it’s raised more than $4.2 million for the cause.
Here’s what some of this year’s runners and race sponsors had to say:
Michael Scott, Block Real Estate Services
Michael Scott, Block Real Estate Services: “The Groundhog Run back in 2011 was the first running event I’ve ever participated in… For the months leading up to the event, it helped motivate me to stay in shape. Since then, I’ve run the Jeff Taylor Race, Warrior Dash, Color Run, and last year I did the Tough Mudder. As far as the event itself, the caves are an interesting part of the region, which makes for a unique running experience. The overall vibe on the day of the race is very positive and energetic. The event staff is very friendly and positioned around the race course to cheer us on.”
Jim Hansen, H2B architects
Jim Hansen, H2B architects: “H2B architects is a small architectural firm who has been fortunate to provide Hunt Midwest with design services for some of their projects in the SubTropolis over the last several years, for such tenants as Leggett & Platt, Food Service Warehouse and Light Edge. It was important to us to do what we could to help support the Children’s TLC Groundhog Run and therefore all three of our partners, Bill Browning, Jeff Hall, myself and several of our family members are running the 5K. This will be the first organized run for Jeff Hall and myself, while Bill Browning, ran cross country in high school and continues to run regularly is expected to be our front runner. I will be happy with just not being the last guy across the finish line. I’m hoping that my familiarity with the SubTropolis will give me the advantage over the last guy.”
Richard Wetzel, Centric Projects
Richard Wetzel, Centric Projects: “We’re participating first because it’s a great cause – Children’s TLC is an amazing organization – a second because it’s such a cool venue. The Hunt Midwest Subtropolis has a great story and atmosphere. And third because it’s a great team building opportunity for our firm’s associates and families. We’re thrilled to be part of the race this year!”
