Coming soon to Leawood’s Park Place Village: Plate Italiano Moderno

AREA Real Estate Advisors, CBRE and KBS have announced that Plate Restaurant is expanding its footprint with a second location at Park Place Village in Leawood, Kan.

Plate Italiano Moderno will occupy the former California Pizza Kitchen beginning this fall (2021). The Plate’s original location resides in Brookside at 701 E 63rd Street; a relocation after the restaurant’s original site was destroyed by a fire in 2017.

“Park Place is the ideal location for this restaurant’s loyal customer base. There is a need for the taste of central Italy, especially their traditional pizzas, and there’s no better location for that than the top-quality office and retail property that Park Place has always been,” said AREA vice president, Rich DuVall, who handled the leasing transaction on behalf of Plate.

Park Place Village is a 10-building complex that offers a variety of amenities including boutique shops, upscale restaurants and cafés. The surrounding area features parking garages, the Aloft Hotel, 120 apartments, 30 townhouses and 27 lofts.

“Adding this dining option to Park Place brings tenants, local residents and visitors one more reason to appreciate this Class A asset and consider it one of the prime mixed-use properties in the region,” said Dan Park, asset manager for Park Place Village and senior vice president at KBS.

CBRE senior associate Matt Rau handled the leasing transaction on behalf of KBS.

“Park Place is an iconic mixed-use destination that draws in high-quality tenants seeking the very best amenities in the Leawood market. As one of the most popular restaurants in this region, Plate is a perfect match with the property and will be a win-win with tenants and visitors alike,” Rau said.

The modern Italian eatery, created by local restauranteur Christian Joseph in 2014, features an award-winning dining experience, with menu items that include homemade pizza, pasta, focaccia and other regional favorites prepared daily in the scratch kitchen.

“For us, it is truly all about hospitality and the guest experience. When we realized we needed a second location to cater to our burgeoning customer base, we knew that Park Place in Leawood was ideal for our first expansion. We are thrilled to be able to bring our next-level dining experience to this location,” Joseph said.

The original eatery on the Plaza is currently serving lunch, happy hour, dinner and weekend brunch with indoor and outdoor seating.

Multifamily brokers form new venture: MMG

Multifamily property owners have a new team of experts - and a new firm - to turn to when considering a sale.

Alex Blagojevich and Michael Sullivan will lead Mid-Markets Group Real Estate Advisors (MMG) as founding partners and executive managing directors, leveraging their multi-market approach to ensure clients receive maximum exposure from interested and qualified buyers.

The duo, along with four others on the MMG team, brings more than 50 years of collective brokering experience and a vast, nationwide network to its new venture that plans to assist owners of multifamily properties in determining the best strategy for their holdings.

Recognizing the long-standing brokerage framework centered on siloed markets is growing increasingly obsolete, MMG leaders seek to establish a new type of multifamily firm built with the client at the center of the business.

“As part of the industry’s recovery from the recession, a growing number of investors are turning to the multifamily sector for more consistent, predictable yields. In turn, fund advisors are forced to expand their search for properties outside of their historical market focus, and MMG is poised to execute on this well,” said Blagojevich.

Its advisors aim to maximize value for multifamily property owners by providing a fully integrated advisory platform from acquisition to disposition. The team has extensive experience with all subsets of multifamily properties, including student, affordable and senior housing and land services.

Owners benefit from MMG’s national reach, access and expertise. Though the team rose to prominence in the industry selling across the Midwest, South and Southeast, they have continued to expand their market coverage into a national focus.

Collectively, the MMG team have closed nearly 500 multifamily transactions across 110 unique markets in 31 states for a total of more than 100,000 units and $6 billion in gross sales, building a knowledge-base of similar markets and an expansive network of qualified buyer prospects.

“MMG’s diverse relationships allow us to explore opportunities among private and institutional investors. That combination gives MMG the advantage of quickly generating interest from multiple qualified buyers by accessing capital unavailable to other brokers,” said Sullivan.

The team prides themselves on taking a detailed, strategic approach to every assignment and creating the highest-quality marketing materials tailored to each property and market.

“We’ve put together a talented team that delivers exceptional service to our clients, and that’s just one of the secrets to our success. We have the knowledge and resources to support clients every step of the way,” Blagojevich said.

“We don’t believe in one-size-fits all solutions. Rather, every client, every asset and the ultimate objective for each listing is unique. By customizing each solution so that it is aligned with the client’s objectives, we’ve successfully helped hundreds of property owners meet or exceed their goals.”

Prior to launching MMG, Sullivan and Blagojevich led the Berkadia Mid Markets brokerage team to notable success in 2020. By leveraging an aggressive approach despite difficult market conditions, they closed more than $935 million in gross sales.

“Coming off of a challenging year has only ignited our passion for amplifying our ability to deliver outstanding client service. We look forward to maintaining and increasing our momentum in 2021, leveraging our one-of-a-kind, full-service approach to consistently exceed clients’ expectations and deliver profitable outcomes,” Sullivan said.

Lee's Summit Medical Center expands bariatric program

Lee’s Summit Medical Center’s bariatric program has recently moved from an off-campus location to the new 52,000-SF, three-story medical office building on the Lee’s Summit Medical Center campus.

The $17 million state-of-the-art building was completed in summer 2020 and included project partners Turner Construction, HCP Medical Office Properties, Bremner Real Estate, ACI Boland Architects and Hereford-Dooley Architects.

The change will give the bariatrics program a larger, updated space with more capabilities to treat patients.

“We are pleased that Lee’s Summit Medical Center is expanding the level of quality care for the residents of Lee’s Summit and surrounding communities,” said Rick McDowell, Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council president and CEO.

Lee’s Summit Medical Center’s bariatric program has six providers who perform various types of surgical and non-surgical procedures.

“Access to healthcare is a significant contributor to the quality of life in our community and we are fortunate to have tremendous health resources in Lee’s Summit,” McDowell said.

Bariatric treatment can greatly reduce the risk of developing chronic conditions such as sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, according to Dr. John Tann, one of the bariatric surgeons at Lee’s Summit Medical Center. In some cases, such as high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes, bariatric treatment has even been shown to cure certain conditions.

“My passion is to treat patients with metabolic disease and the main side effect we see from that is excess weight. I have many tools to use that will help patients reach their goals of leading a healthier lifestyle from diet modifications, nutritional support, medication and minimally invasive procedures and surgery. Lee’s Summit Medical Center gives us access to the latest in technology and resources,” said Dr. Tann.

According to Lee’s Summit Medical Center, the need for bariatric services is growing - especially after seeing how bariatric conditions were disproportionately negatively impacted by COVID-19.

The bariatric and metabolic suite is one of the many specialty services Lee’s Summit Medical Center provides. Other specialty physician services include:

• Midwest Heart and Vascular Specialists

• KC Vascular and General Surgery

• Kansas City Gastroenterology & Hepatology

• Kansas City Neurology Associates

• Colorectal Surgery Associates

• Neuroscience Institute at Lee’s Summit

Are sale-leasebacks a good fit for your business?

In a sale-leaseback, a company sells their property to an investor who leases the building back to the company under prearranged terms. The lease is usually for a term of 5 to 20 years with renewal options. The sale provides the now-tenant with a swift infusion of capital to pay down existing debt or reinvest into its business, while the buyer/investor grows its real estate portfolio with a paying tenant in tow.

Typically, the company enters into a triple-net lease whereby it is responsible for costs of maintenance and all upkeep, real estate taxes and insurance. The rent paid by the company is based upon a combination of market rents, credit of the company, the buyer’s financing cost and required return on equity. A sale-lease back is an alternative for all property types including office buildings, warehouses, manufacturing plants and retail stores.

Advantages of a sale-leaseback transaction for a company include:

1. Unlocking capital from a non-performing asset to invest in core business at a greater rate of return or to reduce debt;

2. Improving their balance sheet by removing depreciation and mortgage debt;

3. Generating more capital (100% of market value) than typical mortgage financing;

4. Continuing to have operational control of the property;

5. Determining to a considerable extent their own sale price, lease rate and renewal options.

A sale-leaseback is an attractive alternative in both good and bad economic times. The ongoing pandemic is severely affecting many businesses’ revenue, working capital is limited, lending guidelines are more stringent than in prior years and M&A activity likely will increase.

In addition, interest rates are low. These conditions represent a strong environment for sale-leasebacks. In a good economy, a sale-leaseback generates more capital than traditional mortgage financing. In a bad economy, a sale-leaseback of real estate holdings provides capital when companies are unable to obtain bank financing or raise capital through public offerings.

A misconception that many people have about a sale-leaseback is that the company has no control over the property. However, remember that the lease is long-term and typically renewal options can be negotiated to provide further control for the company.

In addition, in some respects a company has more control by leasing rather than owning because it has more options upon the lease expiration. These include exercising a pre-negotiated renewal option, negotiating a renewal based upon current market conditions, or relocating to a new facility that better accommodates the operation at that time. As an example, for a warehousing operation this could mean relocating to a larger facility, smaller facility or a different geographic area that better accommodates current distribution requirements.

Sale-leasebacks are not just an option for public companies. Private companies that are looking for ways to generate capital to invest in equipment or reduce debt should consider the advantages of the sale-leaseback transaction. In addition, private equity firms that have purchased a company or taken it private often will consider a sale-leaseback to generate funds for the purchase.

Another twist to a typical sale-leaseback is a partial sale-leaseback. Assuming that the property can be economically modified for multi-tenant use, this option allows a company to downsize in their existing facility while still generating capital to be redeployed as needed.

If considering a sale-leaseback, the first step is to engage the services of a commercial real estate professional that specializes in this type of investment transaction. This will allow you to evaluate your various options and potential market value of the real estate. Your accountant and legal counsel should also be involved in evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of this type of transaction based upon your company’s particular situation.

The next step is implementation of a professional marketing plan to position the offering and present it to the likely buyers of the particular type of real estate. Depending upon the type of property and credit of the seller/tenant, potential buyers can include real estate investment trusts (REITs) which specialize in triple net leases, national private equity funds that focus on sale-leasebacks and individual investors.

Consider the advantages of a sale-leaseback transaction for your company.

Michael L. VanBuskirk, SIOR, CCIM, CRE is executive managing director-principal at Newmark Zimmer with over 26 years of experience in investment sales/acquisitions, corporate services, development and real estate consulting. VanBuskirk can be reached at 816-512-1010 or mvanbuskirk@ngzimmer.com.

Christopher S. Robertson, CCIM is senior managing director of investment Ssles and capital markets at Newmark Zimmer. He has over 7 years of experience in investment sales/acquisitions, appraisal, financial analysis and real estate consulting. Chris can be reached at 816-512-1014 or crobertson@ngzimmer.com.