(front row)
Julie Jurden
RED Development
Doug Weltner
Grubb & Ellis, The Winbury Group
Pat McGannon
Kessinger/Hunter & Co.
Carl LaSala
LaSala-Sonnenberg Commercial Realty
Kathy Woodward, Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, DDI Commercial
Diana Ennis,
KC Chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women

(back row)
Tom Turner,
Collateral Real Estate Capital (Co-Chair/Co-Sponsor)
Estel Hipp, Block & Company (Co-Sponsor)
John Sweeney,
Terra Venture
Kevin Wilkerson,
C.B. Richard Ellis
Buzz Willard,
Tower Properties
Kenneth Jaggers,
Integra Realty Resources
Kevin Jones,
Jones Development Co.
Bob Johnson,
R.H. Johnson & Co.

Olen Monsees,
B.A. Karbank & Co.
Jon Copaken,
Copaken White & Blitt

Kansas City at the Crossroads

On the pleasant afternoon of March 5, some twenty of the area’s commercial real estate leaders met at Ingram’s well-situated offices in the newly prosperous Freight House District of Kansas City.

And a timely meeting it was. Ingram’s annual Industry Outlook for commercial real estate just happened to fall a week or so after the Kansas City mayoral primary and a couple of weeks before the general election.

What our participants had to say about that election and its impact on Kansas City’s future will be read and heeded by the city’s movers and shakers, including the candidates themselves.

The assembly—part of Ingram’s ongoing Industry Outlook series—was co-sponsored by Block & Company and Collateral Real Estate Capital, whose chairman, Tom Turner, ably moderated the event.

Costs

Our participants were asked to cite the most pressing challenge facing their particular sector of the industry, and, not surprisingly, some common themes emerged.

The first of these was cost. Kevin Wilkerson of CB Richard Ellis observed that building construction costs, though they have stabilized over the last four to six months, have outpaced the rates “achievable in the marketplace today.”

Doug Weltner with the Winbury Group sees the same problem in South Johnson County where he has been involved in development. He cited “construction costs and trying to keep rents at pace” as his sector’s most pressing issue.