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Ribbon-cutting celebrates new business incubator at University of Kansas Medical Center

Last week, the University of Kansas Medical Center hosted a ribbon-cutting to unveil the new Bioscience and Technology Business Center, a business incubator that’s designed to spur entrepreneurship, as well as the commercialization of KU’s groundbreaking research.

Several officials gathered to assist with the ribbon-cutting, including Paul Terranova, KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research; Barbara Atkinson, KUMC Executive Vice Chancellor; Bernadette Gray-Little, KU Chancellor; David Vranicar, Kansas Bioscience Authority; Maria Flynn, Orbis Biosciences; and Mark Werthmann, U.S. Department of Commerce.

The new facility features 30,000 square feet of office, lab and meeting space. Three companies, including Aptakon, OsteoGeneX and Orbis Biosciences, are already using the incubator. The facility can accommodate up to 11 businesses.

Innovative features within the incubator, including movable walls and equipment, encourage business growth and collaboration.

McCownGordon wins regional design awards

Three higher education projects from McCownGordon Construction received prestigious awards from the Design Build Institute of America – Mid America Region. The awards included:

University of Missouri-Kansas City Student Union: Best institutional project over $25 million.

Kansas State University’s Large Animal Research Center: Best institutional project under $10 million.

Lawrence-Douglas County Biosciences Authority Bioscience and Technology Business Center, University of Kansas: Best commercial project under $10 million.

DBIA-MAR’s awards program “spotlights regional contractors, architects, subcontractors and clients who have successfully achieved high collaboration through the design-build process,” according to McCownGordon. “Project submissions were also evaluated on success in attaining the owner’s goals, use of innovation to add value and the design quality including functionality and life cycle analysis.”

McCownGordon is a Kansas City-based construction company that specializes in a variety of project categories, including education, biosciences, industrial, not-for-profit, health care, design-build and recreational, among others.

Images courtesy of McCownGordon Construction

Michael T. Mayer to lead Cassidy Turley’s Kansas City office

Michael T. Mayer. Photo via Cassidy Turley.

Michael T. Mayer, SIOR, has been picked to lead Cassidy Turley’s Kansas City office as managing director and principal, effective immediately.

In his new position, Mayer will oversee the strategic direction, talent management and business development for the office. Mayer will work closely with David Allen, who directs the office’s internal operations as business manager.

“Mike has the leadership skills and experience required to propel our growth in the Kansas City market,” said Jeffrey L. Henry, regional managing principal with Cassidy Turley, in a press release. “He is consistently one of the firm’s top performers and is a respected leader who is deeply committed to supporting business and civic activities in Kansas City, which will undoubtedly provide great benefit to our employees, our clients and to the Kansas City community at large.”

During Mayer’s 25-year career in the real estate industry, he’s worked with both tenants and landlords to negotiate leases that total in excess of $872 million. Mayer has been with Cassidy Turley since 2005.

Test your technological, entrepreneurial skills during Kansas City’s Gigabit Challenge

Now that Google Fiber is officially coming to Kansas City, Mo. and Kansas City, Kan., it’s time to begin generating ideas about how this powerful network can be used to better our communities.

“…The deployment of the Google Fiber Network provides the community and the region with a never-before-seen opportunity to take a leadership role in the creation of next generation technologies and companies,” according to Think Big Partners.

In order to facilitate that leadership role, Think Big Partners has announced the Gigabit Challenge, which began Monday. According to a blog post about the challenge written by Laura Goede, “the business plan competition is looking for new ideas and disruptive technologies that will make use of Google’s first-in-the-nation one-gigabit fiber network. The Gigabit Challenge welcomes submissions from all entrepreneurs, startups, early-stage businesses and existing high-growth companies.”

Interested parties can submit applications, along with a 3-5 page executive summary, until October 31. Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of judges, and the pool will be narrowed to a group of 25 semi-finalists. The semi-finalists will then submit business plans and accompanying PowerPoint presentations, from which finalists will be selected to present in front of a judging panel. The winner will receive a $100,000 grand prize and the opportunity to build a business on the Google Fiber network.

For more information on the challenge and to download an application, visit http://www.gigabitchallenge.com.

Border wars abound

Working in the Kansas City area, it’s bound to happen to most brokers: you work a deal and realize you are part of the “border war” between Kansas and Missouri. Evan Warwick with Colliers recently found himself there when he represented Muller Bressler Brown (MBB), which just signed a deal to move to an office space at Park Place in Leawood. MBB will move 25 employees from the Plaza location to their new 8,500 square foot office at Park Place. The interesting part of this is the Kansas / Missouri controversy on space and incentives to cross state lines. Colliers recently posted its second quarter office trend report, talking about this exact item.

The report goes on to say, “The story generally goes something like this. Company X, located in Kansas City, Mo., has a lease expiring and they begin to explore their real estate options. It’s a tenant’s market right now, so Company X is confident that they are going to be able to either lower their cost basis or improve the quality of space they’re in. Some are able to do both. If Company X is of reasonable size with employees that are paid better than average, they can also anticipate valuable incentives from the State of Kansas. The combination of these state incentives and Sprint backfilling their campus with discounted rents has been a tough combination for property owners of office buildings on the Missouri side of the state line. FishNet Security Inc. is the “Company X” this quarter. They will be moving from the Crossroads into 63,000 square feet in Building 10 at the Sprint Campus. The move, which will occur in the first quarter of 2012, will allow FishNet room to grow and allow them the space to include a 20,000-square foot customer technology center that they can use to showcase their products. One difference that occurred in the battle between the states this quarter was that Missouri was able to turn the tables and pull Applebee’s from Lenexa with an incentive package that could not be matched by the State of Kansas. Applebee’s will be leasing approximately 100,000 square feet that had been previously occupied by NovaStar at 8140 Ward Parkway. Until a ceasefire is agreed upon by both sides of the state line, local companies will undoubtedly continue to skip back-and-forth across the border, playing the states against one another to maximize incentives and improve their bottom line.”

But don’t forget who the big winners are: the companies who are getting unheard-of deals. Warwick said that the political game doesn’t interest him; it’s all about getting a good deal for his clients in this economy. “Here was a company that had been on the Plaza for a long time, and we were looking at Kansas options and Missouri options. We found them an option that was very ‘outside the box’ and Park Place was not only helpful but very aggressive. We ended up finding a deal that we didn’t think existed, but it did. I do a lot of stuff in the Crossroads and it’s still fairly popular, especially with the Performing Arts Center opening, but the streets and the other infrastructure are not being kept up. And as far as Sprint is concerned, what they’re offering is hard for any other landlord to beat. I’m representing a company right now that might end up there. It wasn’t even in our top five, but now it might be their number one option.”

Historic building will get “Universal Design” on Main Street

Below, David Robinson, the Executive Director of The Whole Person, thanks the project team that includes Development Initiatives (owner’s representation), UMB Bank (financing), 360 Architecture (architecture), Centric Projects (general construction), Susan Richards Johnson & Associates (historic preservation), Confluence (landscape architecture), Bob D. Campbell & Associates (structural engineering), Smith & Boucher (MEP engineering), and SK Design (civil engineering).

Photos courtesy of Tom Strongman

Block Real Estate Services’ (BRES) employees joined in the fight against breast cancer with their own running team and also sponsored a water station for the walkers and runners at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure at Union Station earlier this month. The team consisted of Lisa Teske, Todd Pike, Don Maddux, Jane Clark, Scott Cordes, Paige Salveter, Brad Jacobs and Max Wasserstrom.  Zach Block (below) manned the water station.

It’s a buyer’s market out there

It’s still a buyer’s market out there, according to the latest information from the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors. It’s not unusual to see several homes for sale in a row on the streets on both sides of the state line. Generally speaking, a 5-6 month supply of homes on the market equates to a “balanced” market. When the supply exceeds 6 months, the market begins to favor buyers, and when the supply is less than 5 months the market tends to favor sellers. The supply for combined new and existing homes was 9.4 months of supply in July, which is one month higher than the 8.1 month of supply last July. The existing home supply was also 9.4 months for July, which is also one month higher than the 8.1 month supply of existing homes last July. The new homes supply in July 2011 was 9.6 months, again about a one month increase from one year ago when the new home supply was 8.2 months. So in both the new and existing homes markets, the buyer’s edge is quite a bit above the 6-month supply mark.

Local firms make “Best of the Best”

Midwest Real Estate News magazine recently announced its prestigious “Best of the Best for 2011.” Several Kansas City-based firms made the various lists.  Under the top owners category (36 on the list), Block Real Estate Services ranked ninth, Hunt Midwest (above) ranked 23rd, Block & Company, Inc. Realtors ranked 20th, and Northtown Devco, c/o N.T. Realty, Inc. ranked 27th. Under top brokers, CBRE ranked number one, followed by Jones Lang LaSalle, NAI Global,  Cassidy Turley, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers, and Grubb & Ellis came in eighth. Zimmer also was in the group of top 35 listed, as well as Block Real Estate Services and NorthMarq. Under top construction companies, Turner Construction won the top spot, with JE Dunn close behind at sixth overall. Under property management, CBRE was number one, followed by NAI Global, Cassidy Turley and Jones Lang LaSalle. Colliers and Grubb & Ellis were sixth and seventh, respectively. Of the 50 in this category, NAI Capital Realty, BRES, Block & Company and Hunt Midwest also made the list. Mike Klamm, CBRE managing director (below with broker Chuck Mussorici), said Tuesday that the top designation was a testament to their continuation of a business plan to be number one in all business lines they participate in. “The platform we have developed and built continues to attract clients who want to execute their real estate needs,” Klamm said.

Real estate snapshot shows a few gains

Many brokers have commented that the commercial market will probably reach full recovery when the housing market  also recovers, and many predict that’s a few years away. Here’s a snapshot of the mixed May housing market in our area from the KC Regional Association of Realtors:  The average new home price in May ($324,853) was 14% higher than the same month last year $285,328). There were six counties (Cass, Jackson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Platte and Wyandotte) with price increases. The average existing home price this month ($150,319) is 4% lower than one year ago ($157,476). One county (Johnson) experienced an increase in average sales price for existing homes from the same month last year. The average price for combined new and existing homes in the region this month was $161,572, which was 3% lower than the average sales price of $167,528 for combined sales prices in May 2010. Johnson County also showed an increase in the average sales price for new & existing combined from the same month last year. On the home sales front, new home sales in May of 148 represents a 37 % decrease from one year ago when there were 236 new home sales in May; however, last year at this time the market was in its last months of the tax credit, which fueled higher number of sales from April-June 2010.

New home sales increased in May by 6% from one month ago when there were 139 new home sales. May was the fifth month in a row that existing home sales have increased. There were 2,037 existing homes sold in May, representing a decrease of 23% from one year ago when there were 2,642 sales; however, existing home sales were up 8% from April’s sales of 1,892. Combined home sales of existing and new homes were 2,185 for May, which is also up 8% from the total of 2,031 sales from a month ago. This month’s combined total sales were 24% lower from one year ago when there were 2,878 sales. Finally, new home inventory continued its long decline and May’s inventory of 1,368 represents another 7% decrease from April’s new home inventory of 1,474. The new home inventory for the region is 16% lower than it was a year ago at this time when there were 1,638 new homes on the market.

LANE4′a Weaver appointed to retail leadership position

LANE4 Property Group’s Tim Weaver has just gained a significant title – state director for Missouri and Kansas of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). Each year ICSC appoints volunteer officers and tasks them with the responsibility of representing the association-at-large. Their responsibilities include participating in divisional committee meetings, discussing concerns and activities within their division with other ICSC officers, mentoring members and other ICSC officials, promoting committee participation and other ICSC activities, and ensuring that ICSC policies and procedures are upheld. The state director oversees all state committee communications as well as all volunteer and program activity within the state.   “I’m honored to have been selected for the state director’s position,” Weaver said. “ICSC is full of dedicated and energetic leaders and the opportunity to help coordinate their efforts in Kansas and Missouri is a special one.”

Founded in 1957, ICSC is the premier global trade association of the shopping center industry. Its more than 55,000 members in over 90 countries include shopping center owners, developers, managers, marketing specialists, investors, retailers and brokers, as well as academics and public officials. As the global industry trade association, ICSC links with more than 25 national and regional shopping center councils throughout the world. “This newly appointed officer joins a wonderful group of volunteers who continue to not only develop new and exciting programs for our members, but also serve as the voice of the industry for the sectors they represent” said ICSC’s president and CEO, Michael P. Kercheval. “All of us here at ICSC look forward to working with Tim during the coming year.”

Weaver also commented this week on the state of the retail industry and how important his job will be in these tough times. “Our industry is in a state of flux right now,” he said.  ”A goal as we move forward within ICSC at the international, state and down to the local level is an  increase in participation by retailers and making sure that what ICSC offers really helps and fosters the best communication and development of that relatiosnhip between brokers and developers and the retailers themselves, now more than ever, we need to be listening to feedback from retailers. That’s the critical path.”