For friends near & far
The Lees Summit-based building supply company, Payless Cashways Inc., is closing 39 of its stores, including four in the Kansas City area. Payless will be pulling out of Indiana, Kentucky and Minnesota, though their door-manufacturing plant will continue operation in Indianapolis. Payless Cashways filed for bankruptcy in early June 2001.

Pryor out of resources
Pryor Resources, a Kansas City, Kan., seminar and training company, filed for bankruptcy July 25. Pryor’s reasons for filing were listed as the state of the economy, decline in training budgets, slow adoption of eLearning training tools and the increased postal rates. Filing along with Pryor are its seven affiliates; Pryor Holdings, Pryor Training Services, Specialty Consultants, Specialty Consultants Kansas, eTrain, Pryor Financing and Pryor/eTrain Holdings.

NABC’s school of hoops
The National Association of Basketball Coaches is planning to spend up to $32 million on the new National Basketball Center at Municipal Auditorium. So far $8 million has been secured for the center, part of which will go to restoration of Municipal Auditorium. The project is slated to begin this October and finish by fall of next year. The center will be an interactive experience which will use games to teach the physics and science of basketball. A Hall of Honor for the coaches will also be a main feature at the center. RSM

McGladrey consulting family grows
RSM McGladrey, a subsidiary of H&R Block, recently acquired San Francisco-based O’Rourke Sacher & Moulton. O’Rourke provides auditing, accounting, tax and advisory services exclusively with credit unions ranging in size from $10 million to $2 billion in assets. The acquisition brings over 550 clients into the RSM McGladrey family and provides 100 new locations to O’Rourke, creating the nation’s largest credit union consulting practice.

Jennings departing from Missouri Tourism
Christopher Jennings, who has served as Missouri’s director of tourism since 1996, is leaving the department at the end of the summer. “His efforts have helped Missouri’s tourism industry grow into the $13 billion giant it is today,” says Louis Hamilton, chairman of the Missouri Tourism Commission. Jennings has been credited with increasing tourism revenues by stressing the state’s historic, ethnic and cultural assets and it’s natural and geographic advantages. R.B. Smith III, deputy director, will take over as acting director. Jennings is returning to the New England area to take a job in the private sector.

Millennium’s 500 new jobs
Millennium Marketing has moved its headquarters down the street to the Shawnee Shopping Center. The company ran out of space and with the expected increase of 500 telemarketing jobs leased 42,000 square feet in the shopping center. Millennium, currently run by President and CEO Rusty Rahm, was founded in Des Moines in 1995 and has been in business in the Kansas City area since 1997.

Vanguard profits lose altitude
Vanguard Airlines reported a net loss of $6.8 million in their second quarter this year. Operating revenues dropped from $37.6 million to $30.2 million between the second quarters of 2000 and 2001. The loss was attributed to transition to longer-haul flights and other changes in the in the second quarter.

Library Lofts on their way
The Library Lofts are now a done deal. The 427 downtown housing units are being developed in multiple buildings, all near the Kansas City Public Library’s new main library. The buildings have already been purchased. Renovation of the vacant office building should begin in late November. Most of the lofts will be in the Board of trade, Burnap and Dwight buildings, with 100 in the Chambers and Hanover buildings and 29 lofts at 917 Wyandotte St. Rates are expected to run between $500 and $1,600 a month.

K.C. unemployment
June marked the highest unemployment rate that Kansas City has seen in three years. Unemployment was 3.9 percent in June 2001 compared to 4.2 percent in June 1998. The figure from the Missouri Department of Economic Development is up one-tenth of a point from May.

Spencer Reed joins elite
The Spencer Reed Group was inducted into the Inc. 500 Hall of Fame after being ranked among the nation’s fastest- growing companies for the sixth consecutive time. The company joins 55 others, only nine of which have been named the “fastest growing” six times or more. Spencer Reed has grown from $2.8 million in 1994 to $80 million today.

Corporate woods addition
Corporate Woods, which now contains over 2 million square feet of office space, officially opened it newest office building. Building 82 is 10 stories tall and contains 250,000 square feet. Its largest tenants to date are Lathrop & Gage law firm and Nortel Networks Inc., which lease 34,000 and 32,000 square feet of the building.

Credits for helping others
The Missouri EDC has awarded $500,000 in state tax credits to the Community Action Network for each of the next two years. Any entity with a Missouri tax liability may donate to the Missourians Building Assets project in return for 50-percent state tax credits. The project helps low-income Missourians save for home ownership, higher education, or to start a business.

One Million to city market
A $1 million appropriation for the city market was announced by Sen. Kit Bond. The money would be final after President Bush signs off on the bill. The money would go toward improvements in the City Market. So far the campaign has raised $5.2 million for a new 195-space parking lot, a new entrance, renovated store fronts, and an expanded center island to serve as a more premanent venue for performing artists. The City Market improvement plans have been in the works for more than two years under the City Market Oversight Committee.