Best Accounting/Consulting Firm
Global heavyweight KPMG, LLP, a leader in audit, tax and advisory services, returns again as a reader favorite, this year wresting the Gold award from last year’s winner, BKD, one of the nation’s largest CPA and advisory firms, thus settles into Silver terrority. New to the field this year is Bronze winner CBIZ, which provides financial, personnel and technology services to let business owners focus on business growth.
Best Advertising Agency (Small)
Last year’s list included a unified field; by breaking this group into two sizes, we see three new players listed in 2009: Gold winner Trozollo Communications Group, founded by Angelo Trozollo. Silver honors go to Sullivan Higdon & Sink, and the readers made Aussie-based Tonic Advertising our Bronze winner.
Best Advertising Agency (Large)
The places change a little, but the names are the same with Kansas City’s advertising heavyweights. Back for another year in the Gold position is Bernstein Rein Advertising, Inc., the Country Club Plaza-based firm with a national footprint. VML, Inc., advances one spot to Silver in this year’s listings, trading places with this year’s Bronze winner, Barkley.
Best Airline Serving KCI
Breaking a three-year stranglehold on the top spot is Southwest Airlines, long a symbol of the right way to turn a profit in the air and this year’s reader’s choice for Gold honors. That brought perennial favorite Midwest Airlines in with the Silver slot. And a new face this year on the list is Frontier Airlines, which secured Bronze honors.
Best Architectural/Design Firm
Want to win the top honors in this category? You’re going to have to get past HNTB Architecture, Inc., which harvests Gold from our readers yet again. Breaking into the field after sitting out last year is Silver medalist Gould Evans Associates. Readers split the Bronze honors between two companies: 360 Architecture, last year’s silver medalist, and newcomer Populous.
Best Bank
Some things, it seems, never change: The Gold standard in reader’s choice for banking services continues to be Commerce Bank, with hundreds of locations across the Midwest. Returning as Silver honoree is UMB Bank, another omnipresent fixture in the heartland. And, just as it did last year, Bank Midwest must share Bronze honors, this time with Bank of America.
Best Corporate Retreat Venue(Day/Overnight)
Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops, does indeed know how to hook ’em: His Big Cedar Lodge is a repeat Gold winner for taking company business on the road. And maybe the economy has something to do with it, because more Kansas City companies seem to be voting closer to home this year: Ameristar Casino Hotel, last year’s third-place winner, takes this year’s Silver. No Bronze was awarded.
Best Employer
There’s a reason you see some companies in this list represented in other categories: Satisfied workers often translate into satisfied customers. And so it is with Hallmark Cards, one of the Kansas City region’s top employers, which snags this year’s Gold honors. Coming in with Silver is North Kansas City-based Cerner Corp., long a standard for rapid growth in the medical software sector. And Bronze goes to engineering monolith Burns & McDonnell.
Best Engineering Firm
Kansas City’s prominence in engineering matters national—even global—ensures a lively contest for these honors, and this year’s voting is no exception. The results, though, are unchanged from 2008: Burns & McDonnell again walks off with the Gold. Earning repeat Silver honors is Black & Veatch, with HNTB Architecture, Inc., again finishing with Bronze.
Best Event Planner
Only one company breaks into the Gold territory this year in a traditional category for either business products or services: Lon Lane’s Inspired Occasions pulls that off as a new reader favorite. That left last year’s top two planners to duke it out for second and third, and Agenda: Kansas City is a repeat winner for Silver. Taking home the Bronze this year is Event Studio, LLC, last year’s big winner.
Best Commercial Realtor/Firm
When the music stops in this category, you have to figure Kessinger-Hunter and Co. will have a chair. This year, as with 2007, it’s a good chair, one plated in Gold, and one that sandwiches those honors around last year’s third-place finish. Bagging the Silver this year is Zimmer Real Estate Services, LC; the Bronze goes to Block Real Estate Services.
Best Ground Transportation
When we say readers like Overland Limousine Service, we mean they really like Overland Limousine Service: Another year, another Gold for the perennial favorite. Moving up a notch to Silver this season is annual contender Agenda: Kansas City, while Carey Limousine finishes with Bronze.
Best Commercial Contractor(Large)
It builds homes. It builds retail. It builds offices and health-care facilities. And it does all that not only in Kansas City, but around the nation. For those reasons, and more, J.E. Dunn Construction Co. again takes home the Gold from our readers here. And, just as they finished last year, Straub Construction Co., based in Shawnee, is the choice for Silver, while McCownGordon Construction Co. earns the Bronze.
Best Commercial Contractor(Small)
Kansas City has its same three favorites again, albeit in a different order for 2009. The Gold goes to A.L. Huber Construction Co., the family-owned business working in its second century. Silver honors belong to Neighbors Construction Co., which moves up one notch from last year. And the Bronze goes to Taylor Kelly LLC.
Best Health Club
You know you’re in good shape when you can run long distances. And for 24 Hour Fitness, this race has yielded Gold for five straight years. The company, with eight Kansas City locations, gives plenty of readers access to training and exercise facilities that fit with their schedules. Moving up a notch this year to Silver is the YMCA, which rides a crest of popularity fashioned by its 16 area facilities. Two Overland Park-based establishments, LifeTime Fitness and Prairie Life Center, tied for Bronze honors.
Best Hospital/Medical Center
Maybe it’s a wellness thing: Just as multiple locations made a difference in voting for health club, the extended reach of Saint Luke’s Health System sets the Gold standard in health care. In addition to its home base near the Country Club Plaza, St. Luke’s has roughly 20 treatment facilities in the region. The University of Kansas Hospital, which also has ties to education and research, earns the Silver in this category. Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, by taking Bronze, completes a 1-2-3 repeat from last year’s hospital lineup.
Best Hotel
Yet again, the Intercontinental Hotel Kansas City snares the Gold, its popularity driven by luxurious rooms and an ideal location just steps away from the heart of the Country Club Plaza. The Hotel Phillips, Downtown’s tribute to Art Deco, again finishes in Silver territory, but this year must share those honors with the Westin Crown Center. And just across the road from the Westin is this year’s Bronze winner, The Hyatt Regency Crown Center.
Best Law Firm
Readers this year made a Gold winner out of Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP, whose legal expertise helped move the firm up from third-place honors a year ago. Silver goes to another legal heavyweight in the area, Polsinelli Shughart, PC, which underwent a merger in the past year. Rounding out this entry are two firms sharing Bronze: Lathrop & Gage, LC., and Husch Blackwell Sanders, LLC.
Best Longterm Care Facility
It has set a national standard for long-term care, and yet again, John Knox Village walks away with the Gold for its services in the Kansas City area. Along with healthcare services, it offers 1,400 housing choices for older adults. Last year’s runners-up are back again, but trade places: This year’s Silver honors go to Village Shalom, sponsored by the Jewish Community Center, while Bishop Spencer Place garners the Bronze.
Best Meeting and Conference Facility
It doesn’t hurt to have extra eyes on you with a new neighbor like the Power & Light District, but H. Roe Bartle Hall Convention Center has plenty to crow about in its own right, including this year’s Gold honors. Bartle Hall thus trades places with the Overland Park Convention Center, which takes Silver. And Crown Center Exhibit Hall provides a fresh face on this year’s line-up, taking Bronze.
Best Shopping District
It will take a lot of doing, and maybe some day some entity will shove the Country Club Plaza out of Gold territory in this category. But after nearly 90 years, the Plaza remains a powerful draw for Kansas City residents and visitors alike. Johnson County’s Town Center Plaza, a retail magnet to the south, is again this year’s Silver winner, while relative newcomer The Legends, which helped transform the retail landscape as part of Village West in Wyandotte County, picks up its first Bronze.
Best Spa
In a service sector given to rapid change, bijin salon & spa in Prairie Village is making a concerted push to retire the Gold trophy for pampering and primping in a spa setting: This marks seven straight since a third-place finish in 2002. And, as testament to the power of turnover in this field, Serenity Day Spa in Overland Park is the fresh face earning Silver, while Sunlight Day Spa, also in Overland Park, breaks in with the Bronze a little more than a year after setting up shop under parent Sunlight Saunas.
Best Web Developer
VML, Inc., a full-service digital marketing agency, steps up a notch into the Gold winner’s circle this year. The 17-year-old company, which launched as a traditional advertising firm just as America was getting acquainted with something called the Internet, is now primarily Web-based in its output. Digital Evolution evolves up a notch to this year’s Silver status; Barkley, with a national presence in advertising, takes home the Bronze.