More than 250 Kansas City community leaders, including former Chiefs GM Carl Peterson and his wife, Lori, and Jim Holland, Hunt Midwest Chairman of the Board, came together December 7 at the Foolish Club at the new Arrowhead for a retirement party honoring Lee Derrough. Following a 42-year career working for Lamar Hunt’s family – first with the Kansas City Chiefs, then with Worlds of Fun and most recently as president and CEO of Hunt Midwest Enterprises – Derrough will retire at the end of the year. He will remain on the Board of Directors for Hunt Midwest, the Kansas City Chiefs and Hunt Martin Materials.
“Under Lee’s guidance, HME grew into a multifaceted company with holdings in real estate, amusement parks and mining,” HME Chairman Jim Holland said. “HME will remain focused on real estate development, services and mining, and Lee has left the company well positioned for the future.”
Ora Reynolds, vice president and general manager of Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development, Inc., will be promoted to president of the real estate company as of January 1. Below, the Hunt family congratulates Derrough on his 42 years working for business entities owned by their family. From left, Sharron, Dan, Norma, Clark, and Lamar, Jr. (with Derrough second from right).
Block Real Estate Services recently leased the 77,828-square-foot Six Pine Ridge Plaza Office Building to Uhlig, LLC, a leader in advanced-technology publishing systems.The company expects to move into the new space in Lenexa at 8455 Lenexa Drive by mid-February, allowing Uhlig to consolidate two of its four current locations in the Kansas City area.
“Kansas City has a lot of great potential locations, but we believe that this is at the top of the list,” said Mark A. Uhlig, the company’s chief executive officer, who added that the company had conducted a careful, two-year selection process before choosing the Pine Ridge location. “In terms of geography, construction and the high-quality infrastructure that our company requires, we think that this is an ideal fit.” Block Real Estate Services representatives Kenneth Block, Gene Elsas, and Brian Bock represented the landlord while Rollie Fors, Tom Volini, Ed Elder, and Tom Haverty of Grubb & Ellis, The Winbury Group represented Uhlig. The three-story building was constructed in 2000 by Block Development Company and has been the headquarters for Kiewit Power Constructors for the last nine years. Kenneth Block heads the Block sponsored investment group that currently owns the building. Kiewit recently expanded this last July to a new 150,000-square-foot headquarters at Renner Corporate Centre I, at 95th & Renner in Lenexa, KS.
”When we built the building for Kiewit in 1990, we made sure that the quality of the building was at the very top of the market,” said Kenneth G. Block, principal of Block Real Estate Services. “We felt that a Class A building, in a superb location such as Pine Ridge Business Park, with visibility and direct access to Interstate 35 and Highway 69 would keep its value for the long term. We think this quality was beneficial in attracting a fine company like Uhlig, and we look forward to their upcoming move into our Pine Ridge Business Park community.”
Colliers Turley Martin Tucker is the winner of the first annual MetroWireKC pumpkin carving contest! Several commercial real estate groups competed against each other, but their “company divided” pumpkin (one half KU, one half MU) won over the judges, who even thought they might have brought in a professional. Their prize? Bagels from Panera. Thanks to everyone who took part in the fun.