Ora Reynolds on Hunt Midwest’s aggressive growth

Ora Reynolds is president at Hunt Midwest.

Today, when you look at the professional day-to-day of Ora Reynolds, you’d never guess she stepped into her job by answering a newspaper ad – but that’s exactly what she did. As president of Hunt Midwest, a sister company to the Kansas City Chiefs owned by the Hunt family, Reynolds spends her days expanding the residential development side of the business and spreading the word about Hunt Midwest’s evolving identity as one of the region’s top real estate companies.

“We understand that our brand means a lot, so we’re trying to take some things we used to do and make them more visible,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds has been with Hunt Midwest since its early days as essentially three companies: a mining company, an entertainment company, and a real estate company. Since then, Hunt Midwest has sold off its mining and entertainment counterparts and has focused on its industrial/commercial and residential development.

In recent years, that’s meant expanding the residential component to encompass a person’s entire life cycle. Hunt Midwest in recent years began developing multifamily projects as well as larger, single-family home communities with heavy amenities for multiple lifestyles.

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Hunt Midwest is providing capital and construction management for its boutique luxury apartment project, Mission 106 at Mission Farms. The 139-unit includes 7 townhomes and is a joint venture between ePartment Communities LLC and master developer Doug Weltner.

“We like to do larger [projects] because there are more barriers to entry,” Reynolds said. “Not everyone has the people and financial resources to build a 1,500-home community with neighborhood services, so that gives us a competitive advantage.”

Reynolds says she sees a big opportunity in a new, widening market created by millennials’ shifting lifestyle patterns. She says statistics show that more than 50 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds and 41 percent of 25- to 29-year-olds are still living with their parents. They’re also delaying obtaining full-time jobs, and need the geographic flexibility an apartment offers, and are waiting longer to get married.

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In 2010, Hunt Midwest launched a joint venture with Principal Senior Housing to invest $32 million into starting a senior living platform in Kansas City. Since then, that investment has doubled to $65 million.

“Those patterns have moved the cycle for a homebuyer out, and it’s created a wider swath of apartment people,” Reynolds said. “It’s all about household formation and job creation, and that’s what we think is really feeding the apartment market right now.”

With a proven multifamily concept, Hunt Midwest ownership in recent years began to wonder: “What’s next?” With many of its communities master-planned for additional uses like senior living, the company decided to form a joint venture with Principal Senior Living in 2010. From the first initial project came the decision to build a $32 million, four-project platform in Kansas City. Today, Hunt Midwest now has four senior living communities up and running and four more under construction or design – a $65 million investment.

“That’s been really exciting because it takes our single-family buyer at all their life cycles, then moves us into when someone needs assisted living or memory care,” Reynolds said.

And that’s only the residential piece of the puzzle for Hunt Midwest. In its industrial/commercial division, the firm is having its best year ever. Its sprawling 1,100-acre Subtropolis, the world’s largest underground business park, now leases 6 million worth of space to a plethora of companies. In 2014 alone, Hunt Midwest added 1 million square feet – the most ever added in a year – including a 475,000-square-foot build-to-suit central distribution facility for a Denver-based e-commerce company, Food Service Warehouse.

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SubTropolis became home to Food Service Warehouse in 2014, Hunt Midwest’s largest build-to-suit in the market. The 475,000-square-foot facility has made the underground business park its central distribution facility for all of its e-fulfillment needs.

On its surface, Hunt Midwest is also benefitting from its proximity to the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Mo., and has become home to Automotive Alley, where Ford Transit vans are kept before they’re outfitted.

SubTropolis Technology Center also opened in 2014 as the first data center in the underground park. It’s anchored by LightEdge Solutions and currently houses four fiber carriers.

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Subtropolis Tech Center opened in 2014 and houses four fiber carriers.

As if that wasn’t enough, Hunt Midwest is also looking at opportunities in the 15,000-acre Twin Creeks area, where it’s contributed $16 million to a $34 million effort to get the area sewered. With 5 people per acre, the area could potentially house 75,000 new residents over time.

Hunt Midwest owns 300 acres in that area, where it’s currently planning Park Place North, a development that will consist of a full range of housing from single-family homes through senior living facilities.

“In 1993, we opened our fist community in the Shoal Creek area, where we put in about 2,000 homes. There, we went in with homes and the retail followed those rooftops,” Reynolds said. “Here, it’s going to be the reverse, but we hope we can do what was done in the Liberty/Shoal Creek area on the Platte County side.”

As much as the company has expanded in recent years, Reynolds says Hunt Midwest must be cautious in its investments.

“We get to be entrepreneurial, but there’s a safety net,” she said. “We are stewards of the Hunt name, and we never can do anything that would risk that, so we tend to be more conservative when we’re looking at projects we can’t control what we think are the important pieces. We won’t get involved unless we think we can control that reputation we have.”

So what does Reynolds consider the biggest reason for Hunt Midwest’s success?

“I prefer to use what I call a ‘rifle approach’ to closing deals as opposed to a ‘shotgun approach.’ You can run around and look at a variety of deals where you don’t have the expertise, or you don’t know how you’re going to get to the end, so I like to go after projects that fit our expertise and where we want to go,” she said. “I learned a long time ago that you have this business plan, and you’re trying to get there, and you may not get there exactly the way you thought you’d thought you would – but as long as you get there, it’s okay.”

1914 Main officially opens its doors

Developers of the newest apartment project in the Crossroads Arts District cut the official ribbon this morning to debut the new addition.

Scott Richardson and Andrew Ganahl, partners of the Denver-based development group Linden Street Partners, were initially lured to Kansas City for their first project because of the streetcar announcement. It was only appropriate that at this morning’s kickoff ceremony as city officials gave their excited remarks, shiny new streetcars hummed along the tracks on the street.

The project team included Centric Projects, general contractor; KEM Studio, architect.

To read more about the 44-unit project and learn about the development team’s next plan for more Crossroads apartments, check out this recent article.

For more photos, see our Facebook page.

New owners give Corinth Square a facelift

Construction crews have kicked off renovation efforts at Corinth Square. Under new ownership of First Washington Realty Inc., the shopping center is getting an update to its northwest corner, which will bring the corner up to date with the rest of the improvements LANE4 Property Group completed years ago.

“We are excited to give this corner of Corinth a facelift,” said Monica Mallory, regional property manager for First Washington Realty. “The shopping center looks great after a renovation a few years ago. Once we’re finished with this construction, the northwest corner will look just as sharp as the rest of the center.”

All stores will remain open during the two-phase construction process, which is scheduled to last a few months. McCownGordon Construction is the contractor on the project.

Lee’s Summit EDC study calls for more downtown housing

The Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council sees growth on the horizon of the burgeoning Kansas City suburb. In partnership with the Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street Inc., the Lee’s Summit EDC has released a new comprehensive housing study that projects that steady downtown population growth through 2020 will drive demand for new market-rate and affordable housing options.

“This study confirms a strong need for additional affordable and market-rate housing in Downtown Lee’s Summit as the city continues to grow,” said LSEDC President Rick McDowell. “It’s been 10 years since a new apartment project has taken shape Downtown. In essence, this housing study says, ‘If they build it, they will come.’“

The study, completed by Canyon Research Southwest Inc., says that by 2020, the city of Lee’s Summit will reach a population milestone of 100,000. On that same note, almost 80 percent of downtown Lee’s Summit housing inventory was built prior to 1980, and only 2.6 percent was built in 2000 or after. The study also says that no multifamily residential construction has taken place downtown since 2005.

To check out the housing assessment and an executive summary of the study, click here.

Populous’ new office: ‘It’s a manifestation of our brand’

Kansas City sports architecture firm Populous is showcasing its personality its new home at 4800 Main Street. Housed in the former Board of Trade building, the brightly colored space represents the firm’s brand, people, and the direction in which it’s moving and growing.

We sat down with Todd Spangler and Andrew Elmer, the two lead designers on the project, to discuss what it was like to bring the Populous brand to life.

Creating an environment

The design process started as most do; with a handful of charettes involving any and every associate at Populous, from landscape architects and planners to interior designers and support staff. Because each department works in a different way, it was critical to gather input from the start, and hear what each team needed to work most efficiently.

“Each had their own requirements and needs so it was really about listening to everyone, which is most of what we do as architects: Listen, take what our clients need, and turn it into what kind of space they inhabit,” Spangler said. “It was quite a task; to please and give them what they need while also creating an environment that fosters creation and collaboration, which is important for us.”

Elmer says based off that input, the design team took the strongest ideas and applied them as design principles throughout the space. Over the course of half a dozen charrettes, the conversation revolved around how people work and collaborate.

“Probably the most difficult task as an architect is to design for your fellow architects, because we tend to be somewhat critical,” Elmer said.

Blurred lines

Elmer and Spangler said the first goal of the project was to create a space where the lines between the interior and the exterior were blurred. It started with a complete re-skinning of the building; Today the glass façade lets light pour in, highlighting the grandstand in the heart of the building.

The focal point

The biggest component of the design is the grandstand, a large wooden staircase in the heart of the building where the members of the firm gather and host presentations and special events. It’s located in a significant part of the building: the original trading floor.

“Knowing that this was the trading floor, we wanted to make something special out of that,” Spangler said. “It’s the first thing you see, so everything is designed around it. We wanted to create an exciting moment and connection to the street. When the shades are up and the lights are on when you’re walking by at night, it’s pretty exciting.”

Fostering collaboration

In an effort to reduce the number of meeting rooms within the office, the design team took the technology from conference rooms and brought them into the work bays. Now, between sets of desks, a center island holds a monitor with a quick plug-and-go display, as well as storage for drawing sets and materials. This allows the team to have quick meetings and discussions and go back to work quickly and efficiently, rather than worrying about booking a meeting room and going to the other side of the building to gather around tech. Due to these shifts, the company was able to reduce its meeting rooms from 20 to 8.

Celebrating the process

Perhaps one of Elmer’s favorite aspects of the new office design is that it aims to showcase the architectural design process – not just the finished piece.

“At our former office, everything was about the end result, the product, so all of our work was framed and either sat in a glass box or hung on the wall,” Elmer said. “Here, we wanted to celebrate the actual design process itself, which is not something that a lot of people witness but is probably the piece as architects that we’re most proud of: how the design develops, how our babies grow.”

Magnetic white boards are scattered throughout the office, allowing witnesses to the process and enabling associates to work through design issues with co-workers.

“It’s all out there because it reflects our culture,” he said. “We’re a growing culture of senior staff and emerging, developing younger staff, so we have an interesting dynamic between that part of the practice, and we wanted that to manifest itself physically in the office.”

Another way the team aimed to celebrate the process was to leave parts of the original structure exposed. In order to do that, the team tried to build as few walls as possible, keeping concrete columns as they were – complete with sharpie scribble measurements and all.

In other ways, the team kept alive this theme of transparency.

“Another interesting challenge was engaging our staff. As a design team of about 10, we had another 260 employees that didn’t get to be here everyday. Todd and I would stop by on our way to the office and on our way back home again because we were so passionate about the project, and we got to see it everyday — but not everyone else did,” Elmer said. “So how did we keep them engaged? We had a number of activities that helped us transition from the River Market to our Main Street office. Some of those included bringing staff down to review the space mid-construction, we had a few other activities like that where folks could come here and see the process and really start to get excited about it.”

Room to grow

Now that a non-compete with HOK has expired, Populous is beginning to expand its reach outside of the sports architecture realm. Today, it’s focusing on growing its aviation work and is looking to do more brand activation, campus planning, and potentially hospitality. The new office, Elmer and Spangler said, will enable the firm to grow by allowing it to attract and retain top talent.

“I think it keeps us all excited and keeps us wanting to come here and do great work. We’re doing great work right now; expanding on what we do, how we do it,” Spangler said. “We’re becoming something really interesting and this space allows us to think creatively and expand our horizons.”

For Elmer, the project showcases the firm’s abilities.

“We really enjoyed this project, and the challenges and opportunities in business and design that came with that,” Elmer said. “This building is a physical manifestation of our brand, and it represents us and where we’re going.”

The project team included JE Dunn, general contractor.