|
|
July 2012 - Posts
-
 The Kansas Bioscience Authority plans to commit more than $26.5 million in new grants and investments during the next year to build the state’s life sciences industry.
On Monday, KBA officials released the annual operating plan for fiscal year 2013, which began July 1. The KBA’s board approved the plan during its annual meeting last week.
As part of the plan, the KBA will provide $10.7 million in grants to attract key researchers and other staff to raise the profile of Kansas State University’s…
|
-
 The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday handed plaintiff’s lawyers a huge victory when it invalidated the state’s cap on non-economic damages.
In a 4-3 decision, the court found in favor of Deborah Watts, who was awarded $1.45 million in non-economic damages for severe injuries her son suffered at birth. A trial judge had reduced the award against Springfield-based Lester E. Cox Medical Centers to $350,000 to comply with the state cap.
Doctors, insurers and attorneys throughout Missouri have…
|
-
Jackson County Circuit Court officials said Tuesday that they have confirmed that former Court Administrator Teresa York violated court purchasing procedures.
The court has turned over the results of its internal investigation to law enforcement, according to a release. A forensic accounting investigation found that York broke rules related to “the handling and expenditure of court funds and usage of court purchasing cards,” the release said.
York was placed on leave June 4 and resigned July…
|
-
 Leawood-based NRES Holdings LLC has received an investment commitment worth as much as $150 million from affiliates of Almanac Realty Investors LLC to buy multifamily properties.
NRES, the successor to Nolan Real Estate Services Inc., said Tuesday that its agreement with Almanac’s affiliates will push the Leawood company toward adding to its market-rate Class A and Class B multifamily properties in in-fill locations in the Southwest and Midwest.
NRES traces its origins to 1994, when principals…
|
-
 Kansas City law firm Spencer Fane Britt & Browne LLP will combine with Denver firm Grimshaw & Harring PC, effective Wednesday, the firms said in a release.
The deal adds 21 lawyers to Spencer Fane and gives it a foothold in the Denver market, which has seen a land rush by Kansas City law firms in recent years. Grimshaw & Harring is a full-service firm that specializes in Colorado development law.
“We are very excited about this combination. We have worked hard to get to know each other well,…
|
-
 Sprint Nextel Corp. shares reached a 52-week high of $4.51 on Monday.
Shares for the Overland Park-based wireless carrier (NYSE:S) have spiked since the company released its second quarter financial results Thursday.
Sprint’s stock price closed at $3.37 a share on Wednesday, but on Thursday shares closed at $4.05 and finished Friday at $4.31.
Despite a wider earnings loss, CEO Dan Hesse on Tuesday attributed part of the increase to investor approval of Sprint’s ahead-of-schedule shutdown of…
|
-
 Nancy Melcher has been named as chief nursing officer for Overland Park Regional Medical Center.
Melcher, who spent five years in nursing leadership at Lee’s Summit Medical Center, succeeds Caroline Corich, who is retiring from Overland Park Regional after 30 years, parent company HCA Midwest Health System said in a release Tuesday.
Overland Park Regional is a 350-bed acute-care facility and soon will add a 72-bed tower.
|
-
 Enough Kansas City viewers tuned in to the opening weekend of the London Olympics for the city to come in third nationwide, according to data from NBC Sports.
Kansas City tied with Milwaukee among markets watching the Olympics during the first three days. Salt Lake City and San Diego generated the highest ratings, according to the report from NBC Sports.
Dave Borchardt, media relations manager for Time Warner Cable, said he thought Kansas City was responding well to the Olympics because of the…
|
-
Kansas City-area construction activity made dramatic strides in June compared with the same month last year, according to a report from McGraw-Hill Construction.
Total contracts for future construction grew to $210.5 million, nearly double the $108.1 million of June 2011.
Of that total, nonresidential construction more than tripled to $98.7 million.
Residential construction jumped 46 percent to $111.8 million.
The local figures well outpace national ones, which saw nonresidential activity increase…
|
-
 Three of the four Kansas City-area companies advanced to the second round of the national Social Madness tournament, but this round could prove the toughest.
Olathe-based Garmin International Inc. couldn’t fend off Hardee’s Food Systems Inc. in the large company category.
But OneLouder Apps, San Francisco Music Box Co. and Lee Jeans advanced in their categories. Second-round voting now is open — support the local companies here (tabs let you navigate each category). The round ends Aug. 6.
OneLouder…
|
-
H&R Block Inc. co-founder Henry Bloch and his wife, Marion, have formed a foundation that will funnel money into the Kansas City community, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The announcement came Monday, in conjunction with Henry Bloch's 90th birthday celebration.
"Kansas City has been very good to us," Bloch said in a written statement.
The foundation did not provide financial information, citing being in its first year of operation.
The Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation will…
|
-
The owner of a defunct Kansas City funeral home faces charges of stealing money from consumers who paid for funeral services before they died.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced that Ronald Marts also has been charged with deceptive business practices and with violating the Missouri Preneed Funeral Contract Act. His business, Marts Memorial Services, 14 Westport Road, operated from July 2005 to March 2011.
Marts allegedly sold preened funeral contracts without telling customers he…
|
-
 Henry Bloch, a co-founder of H&R Block Inc., and his wife have formed the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation.
The foundation, announced Monday in conjunction with Henry Bloch's 90th birthday celebration, is expected to become one of the largest in Kansas City. It will place special emphasis on the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Saint Luke’s Hospital. Beyond those organizations, which the Blochs historically…
|
-
Truman Medical Centers is trying to raise $9.3 million for hospital renovations, health care services and lifesaving equipment, and it’s already off to a running start.
The nonprofit health system said Monday that it will get $1.9 million from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., if it can raise $7.4 million. It already has raised $3.9 million of that, but it must raise the rest by April 10.
“This incredible opportunity for TMC and our community is believed to be one of the largest…
|
-
 Missouri’s annual Back to School sales tax holiday is Friday through Sunday, exempting school-related purchases from state sales tax and — in some cases — local sales taxes, too.
A handful of Kansas City-area jurisdictions aren’t participating (see a list of cities opting out here and of counties opting out here), but Kansas City and many other local municipalities are giving shoppers the weekend off from their sales taxes too.
Historically, the weekend has generated a windfall for local…
|
-
Butler National Corp. reached record revenue in fiscal 2012, propelled by proceeds from Boot Hill Casino & Resort in Dodge City, Kan., which the company began managing in December 2009.
Net income also improved, reaching the company’s second-highest level, as a result of a push to make processes more efficient and to control general and administrative expenses. Fiscal 2012 ended on April 30.
Olathe-based Butler (OTC QB: BUKS) offers professional services — ranging from gambling to engineering…
|
-
 Google Inc.’s partly free Internet service has been lauded for helping to close the digital divide in Kansas City, but a local broadband advocacy group is concerned that the coming service actually may widen it.
Kansas City, Kan., volunteer organization Connecting for Good Inc. plans to hit up Google for highly discounted or free installations based on income for its planned 5-megabit-per-second Internet service in KCK and Kansas City, Mo., later this year. The service is the low-end option of…
|
-
 Elecsys Corp. managed to build fourth-quarter and fiscal-year earnings despite a dip in sales that the Olathe-based company doesn’t see abating anytime soon.
Elecsys (Nasdaq: ESYS) — which makes machine-to-machine communication technology offerings, data-acquisition systems and custom electronic equipment — said uncertainty about where the economy is headed probably will harm sales in both its segments during the next few quarters. But efforts at new product development, as well as sales and…
|
-
 The Kansas City Power & Light District could be exempt from proposed new sales taxes that would help pay for a downtown streetcar system. But its developer has pledged to stay in the game.
That's key because estimates indicate that The Cordish Co.'s entertainment district could chip in nearly a tenth of the $100 million price tag. Find out what's driving the decision.
That article and others, delivered to Kansas City Business Journal subscribers four weeks ago, now are available for anyone to read…
|
-
 The aftermath of a warm winter and a natural disaster continued to plague the earnings of Compass Minerals International Inc., which saw a 32.1 percent earnings decline during the quarter that ended June 30.
Revenue essentially was flat, with a 6 percent drop in salt sales offsetting a nearly 14 percent increase in specialty fertilizer sales. The mild winter meant customers did less restocking of the road de-icing salt.
Also, Overland Park-based Compass (NYSE: CMP) still has been dealing with the…
|
-
 CVR Energy Inc. has a new financial chief, the company announced late Friday.
Frank Pici, who started in the role Jan. 4, “is leaving to pursue other opportunities,” the company (NYSE: CVI) said, so Susan Ball will take on the role of CFO and treasurer, effective Aug. 7.
Ball, who has been with CVR Energy for six years and in the accounting industry for 25, has spent the past five years as vice president, chief accounting officer and assistant treasurer. She also has held the role for CVR GP,…
|
-
A two-year investigation by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, finds that only half of students enrolled in for-profit colleges get a degree and that the schools value recruitment over retention, The Washington Post reports.
The report, covering 2008 to 2009, said the schools put shareholders before students, and its findings are consistent with concerns voiced last year when the U.S. Education Department imposed stricter rules on for-profit schools that benefit from federal student loans.
|
-
The Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences has hired Marc Hahn as executive vice president for academic and medical affairs, provost and dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Hahn comes from the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, where he held a similar post. His appointment is effective Oct. 1.
He succeeds Darin Haug, who is leaving Sept. 1 to become chief medical officer of Fitzgibbon Hospital in Marshall, Mo., after four years at KCUMB.
“Dr. Hahn’s extensive…
|
-
Residents of Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., may see signs of Google Inc.’s ultra-fast Internet network as early as September, but businesses have been put on hold for the time being.
On Thursday, Google executives told businesses to sit tight, pledging that commercial offerings would come “soon.”
Google will connect to some small businesses with the residential connection as it passes them in the network build, but more complicated enterprise products that larger businesses require…
|
-
 A federal judge on Thursday partially granted Pulaski Bank’s request to block former employees from using certain mortgage customer information they brought with them to First State Bank of St. Charles.
Pulaski sued First State Bank after about 35 employees moved there, including most of its loan officers.
U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips ruled that First State Bank can use only the customer names and addresses the employees took from Pulaski’s databases. The officers contend that their client…
|
-
 Google Inc. offered some answers Thursday, but it also has raised a flurry of questions about its planned television service and ultra-fast Internet network, according to technology analysts.
Carlos Kirjner of Bernstein Research posed these in a Friday note:
• Where are Disney, Time Warner and Fox, and why aren’t they participating?
• Can Google make money after installation costs, set-top boxes and a give-away Nexus 7 (tablet)?
• Will customers be interested in a $300 upfront connection…
|
-
 The U.S. International Trade Commission has rejected Rambus Inc.’s patent infringement claims against Garmin International Inc.
Olathe-based Garmin (Nasdaq: GRMN) announced Friday that the dismissal of Rambus’ claims represents its third straight victory in patent dispute cases before the U.S. International Trade Commission. Garmin makes navigation devices.
Rambus (Nasdaq: RMBS) — a technology licensing company with offices in California, North Carolina, Ohio and abroad — had claimed that…
|
-
 Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed a lawsuit on Thursday against UST Development Inc. and owner David Bell because of advertisements the company distributed around the state, including in the Kansas City area.
Koster claims the California company advertised its business phone system services by sending ads that looked like bills to businesses and government agencies. He alleges that UST and Bell also pursued service contracts without proper licensing.
The lawsuit seeks to stop the company…
|
-
 The event honoring these women isn't for another month, so we thought we'd introduce you digitally.
Each year, the Kansas City Business Journal recognizes 25 Women Who Mean Business — deserving local women whose accomplishments shine in their businesses and in the community.
To gain a little insight, we asked each of them two questions:
What advice do you wish you'd been given 10 years ago?What's your favorite restaurant?
View the slide show to the right to see how each woman responded.
See…
|
-
Three Lathrop & Gage LLP lawyers followed their noses to win a $13.5 million verdict from a California jury in a lawsuit about dirty diapers.
Lathrop’s client, baby products-maker Munchkin Inc., was embroiled in a false advertising dispute with Playtex Products LLC. Both companies claimed their diaper pails were the best at concealing odor.
Lathrop partner Cameron Garrison said Munchkin prevailed in part by showing that Playtex’s internal tests showed its product was inferior.
Munchkin also…
|
-
 Entertainment Properties Trust is having a better-than-anticipated year, and it has plenty of planned investments still on the way.
The Kansas City-based real estate investment trust’s second-quarter revenue rose 6 percent to $59.2 million, compared with the same period last year. Earnings available to common shareholders came in at $30.8 million, or 65 cents a share, compared with a loss of $7.5 million, or 16 cents a share, during the same period last year.
Investment spending during the three…
|
-
Cerner Corp. continued to grow in the second quarter, and its backlog is building, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
Revenue was up 22 percent to $637.4 million during the three months that ended June 30, and earnings grew to $97.8 million.
The North Kansas City-based health care information technology company was helped by the federal government’s push toward digitization of health records. Cerner’s backlog grew 20 percent, with most of that contract backlog.
|
-
Kansas City-based Ascension Insurance Inc. has named CEO Leonard Kline Jr. as chairman. President and COO Joe Tatum is taking the CEO job.
Both started their new roles this week; Tatum is keeping the president title. The company had no chairman before Kline.
“In less than six years, Ascension has grown to become one of the premier broker/consultants in every market we service,” Kline said in a release. “We’ve accomplished this by attracting not only quality firms, but also by attracting…
|
-
Cerner Corp. maintained its rapid growth trajectory during the second quarter, and its backlog is only building.
The federal government’s push toward digitization of health records has contributed to torrid growth for the North Kansas City-based health care information technology company.
During the three months that ended June 30, revenue jumped 22 percent to $637.4 million — a high for a second quarter. Earnings grew to $97.8 million, or 56 cents a share, compared with $72 million, or 42…
|
-
CVR Energy Inc. hasn’t been able to find any alternate buyers, the company announced Thursday.
CVR and activist shareholder Carl Icahn had agreed to 60 days to seek third-party acquisition proposals. That period ended Monday, having recieved no bona fide offers, despite CVR financial adviser Jefferies & Co. Inc. reaching out to more than 30 potential bidders.
Icahn had agitated for a sale at CVR, saying the company wasn’t providing enough returns to shareholders. A hostile bid ultimately brought…
|
-
Google Inc.’s plans to let demand in “fiberhoods” drive where it will light up the network gives up some control to Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.
But the strategy also makes business sense for the technology giant.
By Sept. 9, Google theoretically will know where it makes the most sense to put the network. It will be able to proceed accordingly and much more quickly than if Google had opted for a more piece-meal approach, lowering Google’s overall costs, said Milo Medin, vice…
|
-
Dear Google Fiber: “Bring it on,” said one of the local Internet service’s future competitors.
Time Warner Cable Inc. and AT&T Inc. both chimed in shortly after Google Inc.’s Thursday announcement about its three planned Internet packages.
Those include an Internet TV offering and a nearly free Internet connection.
Time Warner Cable provided this statement:
“While today’s announcement was certainly interesting, we are very confident in the products and services that we provide to…
|
-
 Google Inc. plans to launch GoogleFiber television in the Kansas City area as part of its ultra-fast broadband project, officials announced Thursday, using the rallying cry, "Let's do this for Kansas City."
The service will allow users to record as much as 500 hours of shows in high-definition, plus as many as eight shows simultaneously. It will have a Bluetooth remote control and an app with hundreds of channels, plus thousands of shows on demand.
GoogleFiber TV also will be able to interact with…
|
-
 A U.S. senator from Kansas has a serious beef with the U.S. Department of Agriculture — and a broad outcry seems to have prompted the USDA to eat its words.
Late Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., called out Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack over a newsletter urging employees not to eat meat one day a week, citing the “large environmental impact” of meat — particularly beef — production.
The newsletter, dated Monday, also mentions “many health concerns related to the excessive…
|
-
Sprint Nextel Corp. Dan Hesse said the company is “ahead of pace” in living up to its hefty agreement with Apple Inc. to carry the iPhone, CEO Dan Hesse said.
The Overland Park-based wireless carrier (NYSE: S) has four years to sell $15 billion in iPhones.
The popular smartphones recently have proven a challenge for AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, which experienced slumps in iPhone sales in the second quarter.
But Hesse said Sprint’s second-quarter financial performance, released Thursday,…
|
-
 Kansas City International Airport’s passenger numbers dropped sharply in June, largely because airlines are dialing back the number of flights offered, officials said.
The airport (Code: MCI) handled 7.4 percent fewer arriving and departing passengers — 904,047 — compared with June 2011. Passenger boardings alone fell 8.5 percent to 447,501.
But the number of available seats dove even further, dropping 8.6 percent to an average of 36,954 seats available each day.
“This trend should continue…
|
-
 Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. reported a drop in second-quarter earnings, largely due to a change in software.
The Overland Park-based mutual fund company (NYSE: WDR) said Thursday that it had net income of $41.7 million, or 48 cents a share, for the quarter. That compares with net income of $50 million, or 58 cents a share for the same quarter last year, and with $47.4 million, or 55 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2012.
Second-quarter earnings included a $5 million pre-tax charge resulting…
|
-
 Sprint Nextel Corp. wrapped its second quarter much like its first — with a boost in revenue and a wider loss.
But the quarter also brought the best-ever churn, or rate of losing postpaid customers, on its main platform of 1.69 percent, the Overland Park-based wireless carrier (NYSE: S) reported Thursday. The industry values postpaid customers because they subscribe to long-term contracts.
The company said it achieved the highest postpaid ARPU, or average revenue per subscriber, of $63.38 in…
|
-
Google Fiber appears to have set up shop in a Westport building for the time being.
The Google team plans to announce details of its incoming ultra-fast Internet network at an invitation-only event scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday.
In a Wednesday blog, Google Fiber’s general manager, Kevin Lo, encouraged the world to watch the announcement live on YouTube.
But local media and stakeholders attending the announcement in person have been instructed to head to a building at 1820 Westport Road, near…
|
-
Prudential Kansas City Realty has ended its joint venture with Pulaski Bank in light of the mass defection of the bank’s local loan officers to First State Bank of St. Charles.
Through 1st Kansas City Home Lending LLC, a company formed in 2005, Overland Park-based Prudential had a Pulaski loan officer in each of its seven offices in the metro area. It gave Prudential’s agents a convenient resource for customers and offered captive business to the Pulaski employees.
“Since the departure of…
|
-
 The ongoing drought in America’s Heartland is expected to ripple through to food prices by next year, boosting them by 3 to 4 percent, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.
It’s still early for adjusters to pinpoint the severity of crop losses, but some of the first claims started trickling in a few weeks ago, said Laurie Langstraat, a spokeswoman for Overland Park-based National Crop Insurance Services.
“We haven’t had any rain in a long time,” she said. “It’s probably…
|
-
Esurance has launched in Kansas — one of the largest remaining states in which the insurer didn’t have a presence.
The company launched its direct-to-consumer products on July 19. Esurance offers personal car insurance, as well as an array of other insurance products, via online and other tools. It aims at convenience and low costs.
The launch makes Kansas the 31st state to have Esurance. Missouri already is on the list.
A spokesman said Esurance will offer many of the same discounts in Kansas…
|
-
Two construction companies have gotten in hot water for violating the Kansas No-Call Act.
Under a consent judgment, Omaha-based Walley’s Heartland Construction will pay Kansas $10,000 in penalties and fees. An investigation uncovered that the company had called more than 1,300 Kansas consumers, many of them listed on the Do-Not-Call list, after last summer’s severe storms in Northeast Kansas, state Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a Wednesday release.
Countrywide Shingle and Siding, a…
|
-
 The script is playing out for AMC Entertainment Inc. to sell to a Chinese conglomerate next month, the companies announced Wednesday.
Kansas City-based AMC and Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. said they have gotten all the approvals they need from U.S. and Chinese regulators. The latest came from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., following up on blessings for the deal from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, and China’s Ministry of…
|
-
GE Capital Bank is opening a call center in Merriam and plans to hire 150.
The bank leased 25,000 square feet in a building near 67th Street and Interstate 35 where GE Capital Retail Bank has a commercial location.
The call center will begin operations in the fall, handling customer service functions, according to an announcement from the Kansas Department of Commerce.
“We’re very pleased to be coming to Merriam, where we intend to build a world-class customer call center to support our planned…
|
-
 The trucking industry regained some ground in June, but the data hint at the effects of a sluggish economy, according to the American Trucking Associations.
Following declines in April and May, the ATA’s advance seasonally adjusted index of for-hire truck tonnage rose 1.2 percent in June — the biggest month-to-month gain this year. But that couldn’t overcome the April and May contraction of 2.1 percent.
Also, the June index came in 3.2 percent above June 2011, which sounds like good news,…
|
-
 Sprint Nextel Corp., Apple Inc. and several other big companies have reached an agreement regarding patent-infringement litigation brought by NTP Inc.
NTP, a Richmond, Va., patent holding company, said in a release that it had landed on “a mutual resolution” with 13 companies that means the dismissal of all pending litigation between NTP and the companies. But it’s not disclosing what the agreement entails.
“We’re pleased we’ve reached a settlement,” Sprint spokeswoman Stephanie Vinge…
|
-
 DineEquity Inc., the parent company of Kansas City-based Applebee’s, is selling 65 company-operated Applebee’s restaurants for $61 million, a deal that would complete the restaurant chain’s transition to a 99 percent-franchised system.
DineEquity (NYSE: DIN) announced Wednesday that it would sell 65 Michigan restaurants to TSFR Apple Venture LLC. After the sale, DineEquity will own 23 test-market Applebee’s restaurants. In total, it has sold or reached sale agreements for 510 locations since…
|
-
 UMB Financial Corp. reported strong second-quarter results on Tuesday, with earnings and loans showing double-digit growth from the comparable quarter.
The Kansas City-based holding company (Nasdaq: UMBF) for UMB Bank reported earnings of $29.2 million, or 73 cents a share, for the three months that ended June 30. That is up 10.8 percent from earnings of $26.3 million, or 66 cents a share, during the same period in 2011.
UMB reported that its average loans for the quarter rose 10.4 percent, which…
|
-
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Tuesday picked prosecutor Kevin Harrell as a circuit judge for Jackson County Circuit Court.
Harrell, 42, most recently was chief deputy prosecuting attorney for Jackson County. He fills the spot vacated by Brian Wimes, who recently was appointed to the federal bench.
“Kevin Harrell has a strong and lengthy record of ably handling a wide variety of criminal cases in Jackson County, and I believe he will be an excellent judge for the people of this county,” Nixon said…
|
-
 The first round of the national competition has begun for Social Madness, and a Kansas City company has won a top seed.
OneLouder Apps comes in with a strong lead in the small companies category (fewer than 100 employees). Its score is 93,152; the next-closest is 89,190 by Reed Street Productions, which does business as Run For Your Lives.
In the first round, OneLouder faces No. 64 Parthenon Publishing, which has a score of 246.
In the large category, No. 40 Garmin International Inc. (Score: 4,192)…
|
-
In a Tuesday court hearing, Pulaski Bank fleshed out its claims that First State Bank of St. Charles orchestrated a corporate raid on Pulaski’s Overland Park mortgage office.
Pulaski seeks a temporary restraining order to block former employees from using what it says are trade secrets taken from the bank, including loan databases. That followed the resignation of about half of Pulaski’s loan officers in May 2011. About 35 employees, mostly loan officers, moved from Pulaski to First State Bank…
|
-
 Recent acquisitions are paying off for Perceptive Software, helping the Shawnee company nearly double its second-quarter revenue, its parent company reported Tuesday.
Lexmark International Inc. (NYSE: LXK), which purchased Perceptive for $280 million in June 2010, picked up a handful of companies during the past 10 months as part of an effort to boost Perceptive’s business.
Although the the most recent acquisitions helped increase first-quarter revenue, the growth proved lower than Lexmark’s…
|
-
 The Kansas City metropolitan area lost 569 small businesses between 2009 and 2010, according to an analysis of newly released U.S. Census Bureau data.
That left the area with 48,757 small businesses in 2010, down 1.15 percent. The loss puts Kansas City 603rd among the nation’s 938 metropolitan and micropolitan areas, based on the percentage of small businesses lost, according to On Numbers, a blog affiliated with the Kansas City Business Journal.
St. Louis came in 476th, dropping by 0.67 percent…
|
-
 Four stories up at Kansas City’s Crown Center, Debbie Gold’s face is plastered larger than life, promoting her upcoming stint on Bravo TV’s “Top Chef Masters,” which premiers Wednesday.
That’s not the norm for Gold, who typically is behind the scenes, creating and executing dishes at The American Restaurant, probably Kansas City’s best-known fine dining establishment.
This is her second go-round at The American broken up by an entrepreneurial venture with the now-closed 40 Sardines…
|
-
 Rail Logistics LC is expanding its “Cold Train” refrigerated container business to several new East Coast markets after seeing demand jump 300 percent during the past two years.
On Tuesday, Rail Logistics said it was expanding from 120 to 300 of the 53-foot refrigerated containers. It also will add regular service from Washington state to Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and New England.
The Overland Park-based company started the “Cold Train” Pacific Northwest-Chicagoland Express Refrigerated…
|
-
 BATS Global Markets is exploring another attempt at an initial public offering, which could come within the next 12 months, a BATS spokeswoman said late Monday.
The Lenexa-based exchange operator pulled its IPO in March after technical glitches but since has said it wants to try again. That won’t happen this year but is likely sometime in 2013, the spokeswoman said.
“Everything still is really fluid,” she said. “It’s just something that we’ll revisit when we think we’re ready.”
The…
|
-
Lenexa-based BATS Global Markets is exploring another attempt at an initial public offering, and it could come as soon as within the next 12 months, a BATS spokeswoman said.
The exchange operator aborted an IPO on its platform in March after technical glitches but has said it wants to pursue another. That won’t happen this year but is likely sometime in 2013, the spokeswoman said.
Read more from the Kansas City Business Journal.
|
-
 Commercial real estate is on the move in Kansas City, with Leawood's Park Place considering moving ahead with plans for a second hotel.
Also, Grantham University examines options as it nears the end of its Zona Rosa lease, and mortgage company ServiceLink plans an expansion in Overland Park.
Those articles and others, delivered to Kansas City Business Journal subscribers four weeks ago, now are available for anyone to read online. A selection of premium stories that just became available to all…
|
-
 Missouri is part of “America’s Manufacturing Renaissance,” acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank said during a Monday visit to Kansas City.
Missouri manufacturing jobs have increased by the thousands during the past two and a half years. That drew Blank to tour A. Zahner Co., a family-owned engineering and fabrication company specializing in architectural metal and glass work. Kansas City Mayor Sly James and Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders joined the tour, then discussed how the…
|
-
 Hallmark Cards Inc. is getting into the text-messaging world — but not the one that usually springs to mind.
Text Bands, a new product from the Kansas City-based greeting card giant, aim to give kids a way to exchange positive messages when they meet in person.
Kids wearing the colorful bands bump fists or shake hands, causing the the bands to light up and the message — up to 10 characters — to transfer. Each band can hold as many as 24 messages; they include filters to help prevent negative…
|
-
 Small business make up the vast majority of Kansas City’s businesses — more than 97 percent. Out of the metro area’s 50,129 businesses, 48,757 have fewer than 100 employees, making them small businesses.
Those figures give Kansas City a 26th-place ranking among the nation’s 938 metropolitan and micropolitan areas, according to an analysis of 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data by On Numbers, a blog affiliated with the Kansas City Business Journal. On Numbers defined private-sector small businesses…
|
-
 The owner of Frank Ancona Honda in Olathe wants tax increment financing to help support the renovation and expansion of the dealership.
The Olathe City Council plans a Sept. 18 public hearing to consider the incentive for Ancona Holdings LLC’s $5.9 million project.
If the plan is approved, the TIF district would capture increases in property taxes to reimburse the developer for certain project costs that benefit the public. The city expects TIF to generate a little more than $1 million for the…
|
-
 Sprint Nextel Corp. is expected later this week to report beefed-up subscriber numbers for its main wireless platform, but analyst Craig Moffett warned Monday to read between the lines.
Many of those customers probably will come from Overland Park-based Sprint’s (NYSE: S) phasing-out Nextel network — a source of postpaid subscriber growth that has a limited life span.
The migration of customers from Nextel, the 2G iDEN network, to Sprint’s growing 3G CDMA network should wrap up next year.
“The…
|
-
The Missouri Health Connection, which is building a statewide secure online network for health care providers to share patient information, has named its first CEO.
Mary Kasal will take over leadership of the organization on Aug. 13, the Columbia-based group said in a Monday release.
The nonprofit Missouri Health Connection, or MHC, was created by state government to develop a health information network. It still is developing the system, which is expected to go live later this year.
Proponents…
|
-
 The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority has received more than $2 million in federal grants to upgrade equipment at its headquarters and improve its inventory system.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced $787 million in public transit grants supporting 255 projects in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
The authority received three grants, the largest two providing $776,000 to replace a 35-year-old HVAC system at KCATA’s Central Operations and…
|
-
 The owners of Leawood’s Hallbrook Office Center are ready to build a six-story office building if they can find a user to take up about half its space.
Construction will start on the 165,000-square-foot Three Hallbrook Place once it gets a lease with a tenant taking up at least about 75,000 square feet.
The planned building would be a LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) structure at the southwest corner of College Boulevard and State Line Road.
Hallbrook’s owners,…
|
-
Penn State University avoided the “death penalty” from the NCAA, but it still will face severe penalties, the Detroit Free Press reports.
NCAA President Mark Emmert said at a news conference Monday that he hopes the penalties force Penn State to reform its culture.
Penn State will face a significant loss of scholarships and bowl penalties, ESPN reports.
|
-
Banking regulators shut down Leawood-based Heartland Bank on Friday and sold most of its assets to Metcalf Bank.
The state shut down Heartland and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver. The FDIC entered a sale agreement with Lee’s Summit-based Metcalf Bank for both branches of Heartland Bank and substantially all of its assets.
Metcalf Bank announced that the Heartland branch at 4801 Town Center Drive in Leawood would open for business on Saturday. Heartland’s location at…
|
-
 AMC Entertainment Inc. plans to take a more critical eye toward customer costumes in the wake of Friday morning’s fatal shootings at a theater in Aurora, Colo.
The Kansas City-based chain said in a released statement Friday afternoon that it was “deeply saddened” by the attack at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” by what law enforcement says was a lone gunman. The suspect allegedly fatally shot 12 people and injured more than 50.
“Movie-going is part of our social fabric,…
|
-
A former bank examiner for the FDIC was found guilty Friday of charges connected with a Lee’s Summit mortgage fraud scheme.
A federal jury in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City found Rodney Foster guilty of participating in a conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and wire fraud as part of a mortgage fraud scheme in 2005. Foster formerly was a bank examiner for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Foster and his co-conspirators obtained names, birthdates and Social Security numbers…
|
-
 More than a week after Hearst pulled KMBC-TV and KCWE-TV from Time Warner Cable Inc., the two companies reached an agreement to restore the stations Thursday night.
In an email, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) spokesman Mike Pedelty said he didn’t have the details but did issue a statement saying that Time Warner reached a long-term agreement with Hearst Television Inc.
Hearst pulled the feed for its stations on Time Warner cable last week when the two companies didn’t reach an agreement.
Thirteen…
|
-
 A pair of economic development measures scheduled to be heard by the Kansas City Council this week were held off until later dates.
Ordinances to approve a rezoning for 30 acres of and for a proposed new Freightquote.com headquarters site was introduced on July 12 but won’t be heard by the Kansas City Planning, Zoning & Economic Development Committee until July 25.
The rezoning would affect land near Interstate 435 and State Line Road south of Saint Joseph Medical Center that is now vacant.
City…
|
-
 Officials broke ground Friday on a transit center in downtown Kansas City, Kan., that will be a key nexus for a new bus rapid transit system.
The $2.3 million MetroCenter on a vacant corner lot at Seventh Street and Minnesota Avenue is expected to be complete by June 2013. It’s part of a $13 million effort to build KCK Connex, which will link downtown KCK and Village West.
Much of the project is financed by a $10.5 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant from…
|
-
 A close inspection of most workplaces will reveal at least a few unsung heroes.
Most likely, they’re too busy installing a new computer system or figuring out a way to streamline your operations to spend much time promoting themselves.
So we’re asking you to give them a pat on the back.
The Kansas City Business Journal is asking for nominations for the ImpacT Awards, which recognizes the people who use technology — new or existing — to improve the operations and profitability of their…
|
-
Ceva Biomune has begun construction of a $7 million expansion of its research and development facility in Lenexa.
The company, which develops animal health vaccines, held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday. The yearlong project will enlarge the company’s current 2,200 square feet to include 18,000 square feet of bio-safety level 2 laboratory space and 15,000 square feet of office space.
About 30 workers have been shifted to the Kansas Bioscience Authority’s Venture Accelerator incubator in Olathe…
|
-
It was an eventful week of arguments in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, ranging from flooded farms to a $20 million tobacco lawsuit to rehashing the long-running Kansas City Public Schools desegregation case.
Let’s go in chronological order.
TIF TIFF FLOODS THE COURT
On Tuesday, the court heard arguments about whether a business park development near the Mississippi River in St. Charles County should be eligible for tax increment financing.
The city of St. Peters, which sits…
|
-
Negotiations are finally over between Hearst Television Inc. and Time Warner Cable, KMBC reports.
Hearst, the owner of KMBC and KCWE, reached an agreement for its stations to be carried by Time Warner Cable. Hearst pulled the feed for its stations from Time Warner Cable at midnight on July 9 when the two companies could not reach a carriage agreement.
Hearst Television owns and operates two local radio stations and 29 local television stations.
|
-
Political leaders, law firms and an engineering firm are united in the goal of creating a special taxing district downtown for a potential streetcar line. A political action committee named Connect KC raised $23,000 through the end of June, according to financial disclosure forms filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission.
|
-
A group of Kansas City elected officials, law firms and an engineering firm are providing most of the financial backing for a campaign to create a special taxing district downtown for a potential streetcar line.
According to financial disclosure forms filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission earlier this month, a political action committee named Connect KC raised $23,000 through the end of June.
It had spent less than half that amount on organizing and direct-mail costs, leaving a little more…
|
-
 The attorneys representing Nordic Windpower USA Inc. in a lawsuit in federal court in Vermont have withdrawn, saying the company stopped paying them.
A motion filed July 9 by Matthew Byrne of the law firm Gravel & Shea PC raises further questions about the financial state of the wind turbine manufacturer, whose move from California to Kansas City was announced to much fanfare in December 2010. It promised to bring 200 jobs and make a total capital investment of $16 million.
“There has been a…
|
-
 Lt. Col. Lawrence Cannon assumed command of the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence on Thursday.
Cannon succeeds Lt. Col. Lisa Keough, who had commanded the plant since July 2010.
The Lake City Army Ammunition Plant has produced more than 11 billion rounds of small-caliber ammunition since 2000. The U.S. Army owns the facility and has a contract with ATK Small Caliber Systems — a division of Alliant Techsystems Inc. (NYSE: ATK) — to operate the production plant.
The U.S. Army is…
|
-
The hospital workforce situation in Kansas City stablized somewhat last year even as most of Missouri saw greater shakeups among nurses, technicians and other non-physicians.
In its annual hospital workforce survey, released earlier this week, the Missouri Hospital Association said Kansas City-area hospitals saw a total employee turnover rate of 13.7 percent in 2011. That was down from 17.6 percent in 2010.
Meanwhile, the statewide rate increased from 14.1 percent to 15.2 percent. The region with…
|
-
 Air travelers nationwide — including in Kansas City — have been shelling out more money for plane tickets.
According to the latest numbers available from the Kansas City Aviation Department, ticket prices at Kansas City International Airport (Code: MCI) jumped about 8.5 percent between the last quarter of 2010 and the last quarter of 2011.
A ranking by cheapflights.com — which looked at June fares found on its site to the most popular destinations — pushed KCI down more than 50 places on…
|
-
More than a week after Time Warner Cable Inc. stopped carrying Kansas City stations KMBC-TV and KCWE-TV, negotiations between Time Warner and Hearst Television Inc. don’t seem to be going anywhere.
On Wednesday, Hearst, which owns 29 television stations including the local ones, issued a statement saying Time Warner Cable had not responded to an offer Hearst made Tuesday that was within 5 percent of Time Warner’s July 9 offer to Hearst.
KMBC’s carriage agreement with Time Warner (NYSE: TWC)…
|
-
 The Silpada Designs Inc. national conference means about 4,000 women are converging on downtown Kansas City, almost all of them from outside the metro area.
The Thursday through Sunday event marks Lenexa-based Silpada’s 15th annual conference and anniversary celebration. It’s at the Kansas City Convention Center — and it’s expected to have an economic impact of almost $4.6 million, according to the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association.
The conference ranks as the city's seventh-largest…
|
-
 Kansas City-area housing permit activity slipped in June compared with the month before, but monthly totals remain at their highest since 2007.
The Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City reported 265 permits pulled in June, down from 299 in May. The May total was the most activity reported of any month since June 2007.
In June 2011, builders pulled 262 permits.
Year-to-date totals for single-family and multifamily housing permits are at their highest since 2008.
Kansas City leads all…
|
-
Kansas City-based Newport Television LLC has a $1 billion deal on its screen.
The TV broadcasting company said Thursday that it has agreed to sell 22 of its stations to Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST), Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI) and Cox Media Group. The deals, which need regulatory approval, are expected to close in the fourth quarter.
That’s a big chunk of Newport’s holdings, and it’s looking to sell five more stations. Currently, it owns or operates 29 stations,…
|
-
 New Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer reached celebrity-like status even before her first day on the job Tuesday.
The former Google Inc. executive and mother-to-be, at age 37, is being touted as one of the most powerful women in technology as she moves to the helm of a struggling competitor.
All the attention prompted an examination of some of the most powerful women at Kansas City-area tech companies.
Elizabeth Braham is executive vice president and CFO at Epiq Systems Inc. in Kansas City, Kan. Aimi…
|
-
 An investigation by CNN turns up the heat on the General Services Administration’s Kansas City offices for extravagant spending, including a cooking class that cost more than $3,300.
A story that aired on CNN’s “AC360” on Wednesday features an employee of the GSA’s local office describing (anonymously) a “free-spending culture” at the office.
The prime example of that culture cited in the story is a series of team-building classes at The Culinary Center of Kansas City. The GSA paid…
|
-
With a $5.5 billion annual payment into a retiree fund due Aug. 1, the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service is warning that it will default on that obligation, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The default would be the first in its history, the newspaper reports, and will happen unless Congress acts. The money goes to a health benefits fund for future retirees.
Action by Congress before it leaves for August recess isn’t likely, and when legislators return they face addressing another looming…
|
-
AT&T Inc. will offer shared data plans — which lets subscribers share access with multiple devices — as it tries to catch up with competitor Verizon, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.
The plans make sense for heavy data users, reducing the per-gigabyte cost, and they eliminate the hassle of buying and managing multiple plans for separate devices.
Verizon launched a similar plan a month ago.
|
-
Country Club Bank seeks tax abatements in connection to its acquisition of a Ward Parkway office building.
The Kansas City Planning, Zoning & Economic Development Committee on Wednesday will consider as much as $13 million in Chapter 100 bonds to support the bank’s purchase and rehabilitation of One Ward Parkway.
The bank announced in February that it would buy the three-story, 62,116-square-foot building from Highwoods Properties Inc.
Chapter 100 bonds are a mechanism to abate property taxes…
|
-
 Auto sales and the start of summer tourism helped heat up the Kansas City region’s economy in June and early July, but expansion remained moderate and hiring lackluster, according to the Federal Reserve’s closely watched Beige Book report.
The report is based on comments from businesses and other contacts in the Fed’s seven-state 10th District. It was collected before July 9.
“Many firms were reluctant to increase wages or hire new staff until economic uncertainty diminishes,” the report…
|
-
 Business with Hallmark Cards Inc. has prompted Chicago-based packaging and display company Ideal to open a Kansas City office.
Ideal announced in a Wednesday release that it had opened an office at 2300 Main St. to “support current and future client activities.”
Its website, which describes the Kansas City location as a design center, lists six total U.S. locations spread out from coast to coast.
The satellite office will start out small — 200 square feet, with anywhere from two to 40 Ideal…
|
-
 Loyal fans of Director Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” Batman trilogy are pouring out in the thousands, buying more than 60,000 advance tickets for AMC Entertainment Inc.’s marathon screening of the movies, capped by new release “The Dark Knight Rises.”
The marathon starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, with the final installation airing just after midnight, in keeping with its Friday release date.
Nearly half the marathon tickets AMC has sold are for showings in IMAX theaters, which means…
|
-
 Some of the question marks hovering over Google Inc.’s incoming fiber network in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo., could disappear next week.
Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) plans to announce details of the ultra-fast broadband network on July 26, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday. A location hasn’t yet been disclosed for a planned press conference, but details will be made public via a new website, according to a blog from the Google Fiber team. The blog features a short video with photos of…
|
-
 Lenetra McCord has been named as COO of Menorah Medical Center, effective immediately.
McCord previously was interim COO of Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans, where she had worked since 2008 in several admininstrative positions, including as vice president of operations/co-ethics and compliance officer. Before that, she held management positions at Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City.
Menorah, part of the HCA Midwest Health System, is a 158-bed hospital in Overland Park.
|
-
As Batman and Spider-Man prepare to duke it out in movie theaters, H&R Block Inc. decided to take a look at what the superheroes’ all-too-human tax bills would be. Turns out H&R Block can be all too human, too.
In a tongue-in-cheek update, the Kansas City-based tax preparer (NYSE: HRB) explained that it had miscalculated Bruce Wayne’s (Batman) deductions for charitable contributions.
“We got swept away in the fun & fantasy,” the company said, later adding, “Our Gotham City tax office…
|
-
AMC Entertainment Inc. says it’s adding showtimes to accommodate the high demand for tickets to the newest Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The Kansas City-based movie theater operator says it continues to add showtimes for The Dark Knight Trilogy and for the midnight premier, plus some showtimes around 4 a.m. Friday.
AMC says it has sold more than 60,000 advance tickets to The Dark Knight Trilogy, with almost half paying more to see all three…
|
-
Another heat wave has public officials offering warnings and Kansas City-area cooling centers preparing for guests.
Kansas health officials on Tuesday gave a reminder to drink plenty of water and limit heat exposure during the next several days, the Lawrence Journal-World reports. The heat has claimed the lives of three Kansans this year and sickened more than 240.
KMBZ offers a summary of cooling centers in the Kansas City area.
|
-
The MLB All-Star Game exposed big corporate partners to Kansas City’s Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and that could mean good things in the museum’s future, KMBZ reports.
Museum President Bob Kendrick wouldn’t reveal identities of those he’s spoken with but said there’s the potential to expand the museum’s traveling exhibit, the report says.
|
-
 OneLouder Apps Inc., Lee Jeans and Garmin International Inc. won their categories in the local round of Social Madness and advance to the national competition.
San Francisco Music Box Co. also lives to tweet another day, advancing as a wild card in the small business category.
The local winners proved themselves against all other comers in the Kansas City area in the social media competition — based on increased Twitter followers, Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts and online votes.
The national…
|
-
 The Lyric Opera of Kansas City is working with Solar Link US Inc. to install solar panels at its new facility in the Crossroads Arts District.
The two solar arrays will include a total of 228 panels, producing 70,300 kilowatt hours of power during the first year. That should cut energy bills by between 25 percent and 30 percent.
The panels will be installed by the end of the month on the roof of the new Opera Center’s production arts and administration buildings.
“The Lyric Opera is delighted…
|
-
 The accidental cellphone slip into the toilet or unavoidable sprint through the rain no longer means scrambling for urban legend-like solutions to save the digital device.
Boost Mobile, a no-contract brand of Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), is launching a new waterproof smartphone that lets customers save their rice for weddings and stir fry.
Beginning Aug. 3, Boost Mobile will offer the Kyocera Hydro, a 3G smartphone that reportedly can handle being submerged in as much as 3 feet of fresh water…
|
-
Heath King has been appointed CFO of Lee’s Summit Medical Center.
In a Tuesday release, HCA Midwest Health System announced the selection of King, who also will serve as the hospital’s ethics and compliance officer.
King, who has been with parent company HCA Holdings Inc. since 2002 and part of the company’s CFO executive development program, comes from the Redmond Regional Medical Center, a 230-bed hospital in Rome, Ga. He’s been that hospital’s controller since 2008.
|
-
Alliance Data Systems Corp. plans to hire 200 employees for its Lenexa call center by the end of the year, the company announced Tuesday.
Alliance Data’s retail services unit is starting the hiring spree with a Wednesday job fair at Dave & Buster’s in Kansas City, Kan.
The Plano, Texas, company (NYSE: ADS), which offers loyalty and marketing services, needs sales and service representatives for the local center, which has a total of 447 employees, a company spokesman said.
The positions will…
|
-
 Kansas Bioscience Authority leaders will be asked next week to sign off on grants that could lead to an additional 72 jobs in the Kansas City area during the next three years.
The KBA board of directors will meet July 23-24 at the authority’s Olathe headquarters to vote on recommendations made earlier this month by a separate investment panel.
That group recommended a $400,000 grant to Australian veterinary pharmaceutical company Parnell to help offset some of the company’s hiring costs if…
|
-
 Kansas City has launched a new microloan program — the KC Storefront Initiative — in partnership with Justine Petersen, seeking to catapult the amount of microloans available in the city.
The partnership with St. Louis-based Justine Petersen, one of the largest microlenders in the country, aims to make $1.5 million available for microloans, compared with the city’s current $350,000. A microloan typically is less than $50,000.
The loans can help startups and existing small businesses overcome…
|
-
 Kansas City Southern’s stock shares lost steam Tuesday after the company missed revenue expectations for the second quarter.
The regional railroad operator (NYSE: KSU) said it generated $545.3 million in revenue during the three months that ended June 30, up almost 2 percent from the same period a year ago but well below the $570.8 million expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Shares fell by more than 4 percent before recovering somewhat. They were down 2.1 percent to $67.42 in midday…
|
-
 To add to the buzz surrounding the Friday release of “The Dark Knight Rises,” Kansas City’s newest movie theater operator is throwing a bash that would get Bruce Wayne’s approval: a marathon of all three Batman movies, a special Batman-themed menu and prizes from local businesses.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema took over operations of the former AMC Mainstreet 6 on June 20. The company, based in Austin, Texas, is known for activities surrounding big releases, and the newest Batman movie gives the…
|
-
 The University of Kansas Hospital has been named as the best hospital in both Kansas and the Kansas City metro area by U.S. News & World Report.
The annual rankings, released Tuesday, listed KU Hospital as making the national list in 10 of 12 medical and surgical specialty areas, up from six during the previous two years.
Those specialties included cancer; diabetes and endocrinology; gastroenterology; nephrology; pulmonology; cardiology and heart surgery; ear, nose and throat; geriatrics; neurology…
|
-
 A pair of health care tenants plans to move into the under-construction second phase of the 39Rainbow project near The University of Kansas Hospital.
That makes 39Rainbow’s second phase more than three-quarters leased.
KU Hospital announced it will operate an inpatient acute rehabilitation center that will take up 27,800 square feet at the southwest corner of 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard.
“This will give the hospital a new location to provide inpatient rehabilitation in a bright new facility,…
|
-
Kansas City Southern hauled in big second-quarter earnings gains, the company reported Tuesday morning.
Net income available to common stockholders jumped to $120.4 million, or $1.09 a share, compared with $70.7 million, or 64 cents a share, during the same quarter last year.
Revenue increased more modestly to $545.3 million, compared with $534.9 million a year prior.
The Kansas City-based railroad operator (NYSE: KSU) attributed the earnings jump in part to a one-time benefit, but the company…
|
-
 It’s the home stretch for Kansas City-area finalists in the Social Madness competition. Scoring (a mix of votes and connecting by social media with contestants) concludes at midnight.
If you haven’t checked out the finalists in the small-, medium- and large-company categories, this is your last chance to help decide which local companies will represent Kansas City in the next — national — phase of the competition. (Vote here.)
Here are the standings as of 2 p.m. Monday:
• Small companies…
|
-
A south Kansas City site slated for redevelopment into a proposed Freightquote.com headquarters will go through the city’s rezoning process this week.
Submissions to rezone a 30.5-acre tract south of St. Joseph Medical Center near Interstate 435 and State Line Road will go before the Kansas City Plan Commission on Tuesday, then the Kansas City Planning, Zoning & Economic Development Committee on Wednesday.
The proposals would rezone what’s mostly vacant property from residential development…
|
-
 Deals are in the air in the Kansas City health care market, with one player seeking a partner and another doing its best to avoid one.
Carondelet Health, which has two local hospitals, is in talks with other health systems for a possible purchase, merger or other partnership. If that comes to fruition, the metro area's competitive landscape could look vastly different, which reporter David Twiddy explores in print.
And in an opposite scenario, North Kansas City Hospital is suing the city, hoping…
|
-
Essex Place, a 352-unit apartment community in Overland Park, is on the market.
New York-based Rockwood Real Estate Advisors and local real estate firm NAI Capital Realty will market the apartments, which are near 103rd Street and Antioch Road and currently are managed by Fogelman Management Group.
The complex is 95 percent occupied and has received $2.6 million in improvements during the past two years, according to a Rockwood release.
It’s considered Class B, with average units in the 1,200-square-foot…
|
-
 The former owner of the Kansas City Knights basketball team was sentenced Monday to 51 months in federal prison for tax evasion and bank fraud.
James Clark, 53, of Overland Park, pleaded guilty in April to keeping more than $500,000 in payroll taxes from employees of his health care consulting firm, SWISH Holding Corp., for his personal use. That included running the Knights, a defunct American Basketball Association franchise.
Clark also used false tax returns to overstate the Knights’ profits…
|
-
The 35 employees who bolted Pulaski Bank’s Overland Park office in recent weeks to form a residential mortgage office for First State Bank of St. Charles were “disenchanted” with their former employer, according to a Monday court filing.
Pulaski sued First State Bank and three former Pulaski employees on July 10, alleging that they were sending business to First State Bank before they left. Pulaski seeks to block the use of proprietary information it claims was stolen in the move. The defendants…
|
-
 Truman Medical Centers and the Hospital Hill Economic Development Corp. plan to alleviate so-called “food deserts” in urban Kansas City with a mobile grocery store.
The partners on Monday launched the TMC Healthy Harvest Mobile Market. A specially equipped bus will make regular weekly stops throughout the urban core, typically in neighborhoods that don’t have nearby grocery stores, letting residents buy fresh fruit and vegetables and other nutritious items.
Besides food, the unit also will…
|
-
 InnovaPrep LLC has received a three-year, $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to develop better ways to detect airborne agents used in bioterrorism or pandemic outbreaks.
The Drexel, Mo., company, an offshoot of AlburtyLab Inc., announced the small business innovation research grant Monday. The company has received similar grants from the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.
InnovaPrep makes sample concentrators that detect, isolate and…
|
-
 Southwest Airlines Co. will introduce two daily nonstop flights between Kansas City and Minneapolis-St. Paul beginning next year.
The Dallas-based airline (NYSE: LUV) and subsidiary AirTran Airways announced the new flights Monday. They start Feb. 14.
Southwest and AirTran also announced a slate of new seasonal routes, though none of them originate from Kansas City.
Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) and American Airlines currently provide the only direct service from Kansas City International Airport…
|
-
 The University of Missouri-Kansas City has received an $8.3 million federal grant to study bone and muscle loss.
In a Monday release, UMKC said the five-year grant is from the National Institute on Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health. Researchers plan to look for connections between osteoporosis, which attacks bone density, and sarcopenia, or loss of muscle mass, as people get older.
Lynda Bonewald, director of the UMKC School of Dentistry’s bone biology research program, will…
|
-
 AMC Entertainment Inc. and IMAX Corp. have signed a deal to install as many as 18 additional IMAX theaters across the country.
The two companies on Monday announced the expansion of their joint revenue-sharing arrangement, saying they’ve already confirmed eight theaters in both existing IMAX markets and markets that don’t yet have the upgraded projection technology. At least three theaters are expected to be open by the end of the year, the companies said.
In total, AMC now operates 125 IMAX…
|
-
Overland Park tech company LockPath Inc. raised $6 million in new investments, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
The company, which provides regulatory compliance and risk management software, said it will use the new money for software development. Founded in 2009, LockPath now has 26 employees.
The company’s new money came largely from investors who provided $2 million last year.
|
-
Overland Park technology startup LockPath Inc. has landed $6 million in financing from familiar investors.
LockPath, founded in 2009, provides regulatory compliance and risk management software. The company said Monday that it plans to use the cash influx to pay for software development.
LockPath has 26 employees at its headquarters at 8101 College Blvd.
Investors in the series B financing round mirrored LockPath’s $2 million series A round in 2011.
Early-stage venture capital firm El Dorado…
|
-
 This year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the events preceding it scored a home run in Kansas City, according to MLB.
Here’s a rundown of the stats:
• 27.7 million viewers watched the All-Star Game on TV, up 7 percent from last year — the largest rise in viewers since 1998. People in 220 countries had access to watch the game.
• 6.9 million people tuned into the Home Run Derby, up about 3 percent from last year.
• 119,000 people visited FanFest at the Kansas City Convention…
|
-
Sprint Nextel Corp.’s Sunday launch of its 4G LTE network in Kansas City means the unleashing of data speeds four to five times faster than what subscribers on its current 4G network now experience, according to the CEO of a company that routinely evaluates wireless network performance.
Still, Sprint’s entry into the LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, technology field trails that of Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., which launched LTE locally in late 2011. It’s a switch for Sprint (NYSE: S), which…
|
-
 Foodies will be able get a taste of Kansas City through walking tours that focus on iconic neighborhoods.
KC’s Best Food Tours, which launch Aug. 3, will start by offering three different tours at a time, rotating through featured neighborhoods such as the Country Club Plaza, Kansas City Power & Light District, River Market, West 39th Street, Westport, Brookside and possibly 17th & Summit streets.
All tours will be three hours long and visit five restaurants.
Co-founder Jessica Burke said she’s…
|
-
The revamping of the Wyandotte Plaza shopping center in Kansas City, Kan., won approval for $8.5 million in local government-backed bonds.
The Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kan., Board of Commissioners voted Thursday to issue the special obligation annual appropriation bonds to kickstart a $28 million demolition and renovation project anchored by a Price Chopper at 78th Street and State Avenue.
The developer — Legacy Wyandotte LLC, which is managed by Dan Lowe of RED Legacy…
|
-
Garmin International Inc. announced Friday that it was ordered to pay $500,000 in damages because of a patent lawsuit in Texas.
The lawsuit, filed by Ambato Media LLC in 2009, centered around Garmin devices that used MSN Direct service to get information such as local gas prices, movie times and weather forecasts. The suit claimed the devices violated Ambato’s television receiver patent.
Olathe-based Garmin discontinued the devices in 2010, and MSN Direct service shut down in January, so the…
|
-
Kansas City Terminal Railway Co. is now moving to sue two — not just one — of its former presidents in Jackson County Circuit Court.
The railroad has added Bill Somervell as a defendant in its lawsuit against Chuck Mader, who was fired in February after federal investigators raided his home and office. The suit claims that Mader and associates used KCT as a personal piggy bank to pay for home renovations and a host of other ventures, largely through a company called Razorback Rail Services Inc.,…
|
-
Proponents of building a National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kan., got good — but not great — news from a scientific panel.
A federal panel of scientific experts agrees that the United States needs a new top-level biocontainment laboratory to protect the public while researching some of the most dangerous threats facing animal safety.
However, the National Research Council says that those goals could be met with a smaller, less expensive version of the National Bio and Agro-Defense…
|
-
Pulaski Bank has filed a lawsuit against First State Bank of St. Charles and three former Pulaski employees who joined the competing bank to set up a mortgage operation in the Kansas City area.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Kansas, claims the former employees, while still employed at Pulaski, conspired to provide “highly confidential and proprietary information” to First State Bank as part of a “plan to defraud and damage Pulaski.” The suit seeks injunctions to recover the…
|
-
DataSource Inc. has sold to a Philadelphia-based private equity firm, the companies announced Friday.
Under Inverness Graham Investments' ownership, Kansas City-based DataSource will keep its name and "aggressive growth strategies," according to a release.
Also Friday, the print supply-chain management company announced that it had promoted President David Holland to CEO.
The acquisition is a position change for DataSource, which has bought up several companies during the past few years. Its latest…
|
-
WireCo World Group lassoed an international manufacturer of synthetic ropes in a purchase valued at $177 million, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
Kansas City-based WireCo completed its purchase of Lankhorst Ropes on Thursday. Lankhorst makes synthetic ropes used in the marine, fishing and offshore-drilling markets and employs more than 1,300 people in facilities in the Netherlands, Portugal and Brazil.
The deal give WireCo about 4,400 employees worldwide, including about 135 at its headquarters…
|
-
President Obama on Thursday nominated Angela Tammy Dickinson to be U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
Dickinson has been chief trial assistant for the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office since 2002, overseeing the office’s Independence branch. She joined the office in 2002 after working briefly at Leawood-based plaintiff’s firm Bartimus Frickleton Robertson & Gorny PC.
“Angela Tammy Dickinson has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to justice throughout her career, and…
|
-
North Kansas City Hospital’s board has filed a lawsuit against the city, trying to stop its effort to sell the hospital.
The suit, filed in Clay County, seeks an injunction to stop any sale effort, as well as a declaration that the city has no right under Missouri law to sell the hospital.
In mid-June, North Kansas City took hospital officials by surprise when news broke that the city was examining selling the hospital. On June 19, City Council members voted to contract with Merrill Lynch —…
|
-
 It would hard to describe reactions to the University of Kansas Cancer Center earning prestigious National Cancer Institute designation as anything less than elated.
Kansas City-area politicians and business leaders praised those who played a role in the Kansas City, Kan., facility realizing the ambitious goal and touted the potential it offers. (Read more about Thursday's NCI designation news here.)
The region's politicians said they’d continue pulling for the Cancer Center in the halls of Congress.
SLIDE…
|
-
Cineplex Inc. has closed on its purchase of four AMC Entertainment Inc. movie theaters in Canada.
Cineplex announced Thursday that it had finalized the acquisition, saying the theaters would be closed Thursday but reopen late Friday afternoon. The deal brings on about 250 theater employees.
Cineplex expects to invest in each of the theaters. Three are in Ontario: Mississauga, Toronto and Oakville. One is in Montreal, Quebec.
Read more about the deal.
AMC is based in Kansas City. It also planned…
|
-
A federal judge in Kansas City, Kan., has ruled that a drug-dispensing robot from Innovation Associates Inc. didn’t violate a patent from Mission-based ScriptPro LLC.
Both companies sell automatic dispensing systems, or robots, that fill prescriptions for pharmacies.
ScriptPro filed a lawsuit against Innovation Associates of Johnson City, N.Y., in 2006, alleging that its ROBOTx infringed on a patent that ScriptPro uses in its robots and had held since 2005.
On June 26, Judge Carlos Murguia granted…
|
-
K&M Tire Inc., a wholesale tire distributor, has purchased a more than 80,000-square-foot warehouse in Lawrence. It plans to open the new location next month.
The facility will offer passenger, light truck, commercial truck, farm and utility tires to retailers in Kansas and Missouri.
“The Kansas City area is an excellent geographic fit for K&M Tire, and we anticipate this new location will grow to be one of our highest sales volume warehouses west of the Mississippi,” K&M Tire Vice President…
|
-
Tobacco company Grand River Enterprises has agreed to pay the state of Kansas more than $1 million to settle two lawsuits.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced the settlement Thursday, saying it recently was approved by Shawnee County District Judge Frank Yeoman.
Of the total, $336,000 will go to the state’s general fund to pay for its legal expenses. The remaining $672,000 will be put in escrow and held for 25 years for any Kansas consumer who makes a claim against the company.
The…
|
-
 The Lenexa City Council approved tax increment financing for Perceptive Software Inc.’s forthcoming headquarters at a special meeting Wednesday night.
The approval allows certain costs to develop the Shawnee-based software company’s new headquarters in Lenexa City Center to be reimbursed with increases in property taxes. The multi-phase office project is expected to generate nearly $11 million in costs that are eligible for public TIF reimbursement.
The development will command $50 million…
|
-
 Commerce Bancshares Inc. reported record earnings for the second quarter, thanks mainly to improved credit quality and lower expenses.
The Kansas City-based holding company (Nasdaq: CBSH) for Commerce Bank reported $74.3 million in net income, up 7.6 percent from the same period last year.
“We were pleased to report record second-quarter earnings which, compared to the previous quarter, was driven by 4.6 percent growth in top-line revenue, continued improving credit quality, and solid expense…
|
-
 Leawood-based CrossFirst Bank has applied to open a full-service branch in Oklahoma City, its first in Oklahoma.
This makes the second time CrossFirst planned a full-service branch outside the Kansas City area. The bank opened a Wichita branch in January.
CrossFirst already has a loan production office in Oklahoma City; it’s in the process of buying the 13,000-square-foot building that houses it, 5001 Gaillardia Corporate Place. The bank expects to receive regulatory approval and open the new…
|
-
Marlen International Inc. plans to close a Hutchinson manufacturing plant early next year, moving those operations to Riverside, according to The Hutchinson News.
The 29-employee plant makes food-processing equipment. Employees were alerted Wednesday morning, according to the report.
CEO Nikola Vajda told The Hutchinson News that the company has too many facilities and needs to consolidate. However, the move hinges on approval of state and local incentives.
Marlen’s website also lists a location…
|
-
|
Article In:Kansas City Star
REI and Rock and Brew ...
|
-
 Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. has cooked up a new logo and a restaurant redesign, aiming at making the atmosphere more like a stadium.
The grill and bar chain lists nine Kansas City-area locations on its website.
The new restaurant design also will include better audiovisual systems, as well as changes designed to improve efficiency. But it won’t show up immediately, instead appearing in most new Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants opening next year and in many remodels.
The new logo has subtle changes,…
|
-
 Quality Technology Services Inc. has hired two chief operating officers to lead the company’s sales and development teams.
Dan Bennewitz, who spent 30 years at IBM in various sales and management positions, is QTS’ new COO of sales and marketing. Jim Reinhart, who previously held executive roles in technology and operations at Genworth Financial, is the COO of development and operations.
The hires, announced Wednesday, follow the April departure of Tesh Durvasula, QTS’ former chief marketing…
|
-
 Kansas Speedway’s track has a new look that could add excitement to races.
Repaving work is complete on the newly configured track oval. Previously, it banked at a uniform 15 degrees from the bottom to the top of the track. The reconfiguration created banks that start at 16.5 degrees, increasing to 20 degrees. The goal is to let cars higher on the track carry more speed through the corners, allowing for more side-by-side racing.
But there’s plenty of work yet to go before the track will be…
|
-
Drivers between downtown Kansas City and Johnson County are in for big traffic delays starting this weekend thanks to road work at the Interstate 635 and Interstate 35 interchange.
Starting at 8 p.m. Friday and reopening at 5 a.m. Monday, unless otherwise specified:
The right two southbound lanes and the shoulder will be closed from the Johnson County/Wyandotte County line to Foster Road.The ramp from I-635 north to I-35 north will be closed. As a detour, drivers can take northbound I-635 to Shawnee…
|
-
A Lawrence gas station will sell the nation’s first E15 fuel, which includes a higher percentage of ethanol to gasoline, according to a release from the Renewable Fuels Association.
The E15 blend, which is 15 percent ethanol and the remainder gasoline, got approval for sale about a month ago from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It can be used in light-duty vehicles made since 2001, or almost two-thirds of vehicles on the road. The fuel will sell for less than E10 and regular gasoline.
A…
|
-
A Parkville man and local construction company owner has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for bankruptcy fraud.
U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes sentenced Armando Diaz, 47, to two years without parole, then three years of supervised release. Diaz — who owned several companies, including Fortis Construction Co. — had pleaded guilty on Aug. 4.
Diaz admitted to fraudulently moving property and hiding assets from a bankruptcy trustee to keep the holdings from his creditors.
“This…
|
-
 Commuting to downtown Kansas City or elsewhere in the metro area is about to get a bit tougher, with upcoming road projects about to divert or slow up traffic. To help, we’ve compiled a roundup of key road work that could cause snarls.
Here’s a look:
Johnson County
Work around the Interstate 635 and Interstate 35 interchange starts Friday evening and will cause various traffic delays through July 23.U.S. Highway 69 and Interstate 435 — This road expansion project has caused ramp closings…
|
-
 It’s a jungle in the job market — and one applicant for a management job apparently was up to the challenge.
For skills, the applicant listed gator hunting.
CareerBuilder on Wednesday released the results of a survey of hiring managers — including a list of the most memorable or unusual applications. For job seekers, standing out is a hot topic, with unemployment still elevated and job creation levels less than robust.
“One in five HR managers reported that they spend less than 30 seconds…
|
-
 Construction officially is underway on Teva Neuroscience Inc.’s new facility in Overland Park, which initially will house about 350 employees.
A Monday groundbreaking kicked off work on the five-story, Class A office building, which is set for completion in the third quarter of 2013. The site of the emerging 150,000-square-foot structure, 11100 Nall Ave., also offers expansion potential — it has room for an additional 100,000-square-foot building.
“We look forward to completing the development…
|
-
 An $80 million mixed-use development near Kansas City's Country Club Plaza is in the works, with its primary anchor a 223-room Hyatt Corp. hotel.
BH Plaza LLC, a development entity formed May 14 for an office and hotel development, has filed for a financing agreement with the Tax Increment Financing Commission of Kansas City to prepare for a public hearing about the project.
The TIF Commission meets Wednesday and will consider the agreement for what’s being called the Victory Court TIF plan.…
|
-
 After months of fanfare, the All-Star Game teams hit the field Tuesday night. But the Kansas City Royals’ American League lost 8-0, meaning the National League gets home-field advantage for this year’s World Series.
But there’s plenty of dissecting left to do, and media outlets across the country are weighing in on the Major League Baseball event.
The New York Times offers a general run-down of the game itself, as well as the shenanigans that punctuated the week.
MLB.com offers a recap of…
|
-
Retired Black & Veatch executive Robert Smith is the latest appointee to the Kansas Bioscience Authority board, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
His appointment by Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, leaves one vacancy on the 11-member board — a spot to be filled by House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence.
Smith retired in 2000 as COO of Overland Park-based Black & Veatch’s process division.
The mission of the state-financed KBA, based in Olathe, is to advance the…
|
-
 A retired Black & Veatch executive has been named to the Kansas Bioscience Authority.
Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal on Tuesday announced the appointment of Robert Smith to the board of the KBA, a state-funded body based in Olathe that receives about $35 million a year from Kansas taxpayers to help advance the state’s biotechnology industry.
Smith retired from Black & Veatch in 2000 as COO of the engineering firm’s process division. He also has served as a fellow of the American Institute…
|
-
Jackson County Circuit Court Administrator Teresa L. York resigned amid an investigation into whether she misused court funds, officials said Tuesday.
York had been on paid leave since June 4. Court officials said they will not comment further while an investigation is ongoing.
Jeff Eisenbeis will take over as interim court administrator on July 16. He has worked in management positions with the court for 14 years and currently is deputy court administrator of family court services.
|
-
 For the first time this summer, Leroy Shatto had to tell vendors that Shatto Milk Co. didn’t have enough milk to supply some of its usual products.
On Tuesday, Shatto Milk pulled its coffee, banana and orange dream milk because of the lack of supply.
His 380 dairy cows are healthy, but the heat is getting to them. Combine production declines with rising feed costs and higher water and electricity bills, and it’s shaping up to be a long summer for Kansas City-area dairy farmers.
Shatto Milk…
|
-
 The heat isn’t getting everybody down — it’s contributing to a great season so far for Kansas City’s Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun.
“Generally, we’re having a really, really good season here,” spokesman Brandon Stanley said, adding that the increase has been particularly noticeable on weekday evenings.
A big push to sell season passes was a key factor, coaxing more buyers from the five-state region, and a redesigned website has featured the passes. There’s also been a marked rebound…
|
-
Lathrop & Gage LLP has expanded its executive committee from eight to 11 members with the election of three additional partners, the firm said Tuesday.
Environmental litigator Bill Beck and Bob Grossman, a business attorney nationally recognized as an authority on employee stock-ownership plans, were elected from the Kansas City office. Also elected was Phillip Lorenzo, an intellectual property lawyer who came to Lathrop in its first foray into the Denver market in 2005.
Succeeding him as partner…
|
-
 The American League will win Tuesday’s All-Star Game. At least, that’s what the octopus at Sea Life Kansas City Aquarium thinks.
Staff at Sea Life put two Lego boxes into the octopus’ tank, one representing the American League and the other the National League. The teams will duke it out in Tuesday’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Kauffman Stadium.
The Kansas City Royals are in the American League; Billy Butler represents the Royals in the game.
Both boxes, built by Legoland Master…
|
-
Kansas City television stations KMBC-TV and KCWE-TV no longer are available on Time Warner Cable Inc. after the companies’ agreement expired late Monday night.
A statement on KMBC’s website said its carriage agreement with Time Warner (NYSE: TWC) expired at 11:59 p.m. Monday. The statement said that unless Time Warner changes its position in the negotiations, the two channels no longer will be available.
“We cannot predict if or when discussions with Time Warner will resume or if or when…
|
-
 Robert Litan, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s vice president for research and policy, is taking a job as director of research for Bloomberg Government.
He starts at Bloomberg Government on Aug. 6.
Litan is going from espousing the virtues of startups at the Kauffman Foundation to working at what essentially is a startup within the Bloomberg network.
After nine years at the Kauffman Foundation, Litan said he got a call from Bloomberg Government about the job. He said the innovative business…
|
-
 Three of the four Kansas City-area riverboat casinos saw revenue rebound in June, leaving Argosy Casino Hotel & Spa with the toughest hand.
Argosy’s revenue dropped almost 20 percent, making its fifth straight month with the largest year-to-year revenue decline. The last time Argosy saw an increase was in January, the month before its sister casino, Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway, opened in Kansas City, Kan.
Argosy’s June revenue was $12.29 million. Its visitor count dove 22.5 percent…
|
-
 The boo-fest that erupted during Monday night’s Home Run Derby contest at Kauffman Stadium could mean a lot of discussion about modifying the way players are selected for future events.
Kansas City baseball fans brought out the jeers for the New York Yankees’ Robinson Cano, the defending Home Run Derby champion who was responsible for selecting the American League participants in the event.
SLIDE SHOW: See photos from the Home Run Derby
Cano’s mistake was publicly stating that he was…
|
-
 A Texas-based operator will run the hotel portion of Kansas City’s mixed-use Plaza Vista project.
Houston-based Valencia Group will operate a 132-room, high-end boutique hotel concept, already underway in Houston, called Hotel Sorella.
“Our expectation is that it will be the premier hotel in the Kansas City market,” said Jeff Dillon, director of development for Plaza Vista developer VanTrust Real Estate LLC.
At between $200 and $300 a night for a room, it also will be one of the city’s…
|
-
 The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is Tuesday evening, meaning the eyes of media outlets, locals and fans — even from across the globe — are focused on Kansas City.
Fountains are bright blue, corporate jets are lined up at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, and tourists sporting All-Star Gear have arrived at Kansas City International Airport, in Downtown and across the city. (See our ongoing coverage of the All-Star Game.)
A 1 p.m. Country Club Plaza parade, with 13-time All-Star…
|
-
Roger Wilson, former Missouri lieutenant governor and interim governor, won’t get jail time for misappropriating money from Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance Co., the St. Louis Business Journal reports.
Wilson, 63, was sentenced Monday to two years of probation, a $5,000 fine, $5,000 of restitution and 100 hours of community service. He is a former CEO of MEM.
He pleaded guilty in April to misappropriating $5,000 from MEM, the state’s largest provider of workers’ compensation insurance.…
|
-
 CrossFirst Holdings LLC is raising capital — again — and historically that has come in conjunction with acquisition activity.
According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, CrossFirst Holdings wants to raise $25 million. As of Monday, it reported having raised $585,000 of that total. The minimum investment is $50,000.
The offering was done under Regulation D, which means it was exempt from registration requirements and conducted as a private placement rather than being offered…
|
-
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game isn’t just filling seats at Kauffman Stadium — the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport is seeing an influx of corporate aircraft.
More than 20 of the planes were parked at the airport Monday afternoon.
Joe McBride, spokesman for the Kansas City Aviation Department, said most were in town for the All-Star Game. A tent offering grilled food welcomed incoming Major League Baseball officials and players on Monday.
“We’re excited about the Downtown Airport…
|
-
 Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday afternoon visited Kansas City to sign legislation that will let the city set up a land bank to deal with abandoned and blighted property.
House Bill 1659 lets the land bank acquire, rehabilitate and resell the properties. Nixon signed the bill at the Lucile H. Bluford branch of the Kansas City Public Library.
“Kansas City both values its rich history and invests in its promising future,” Nixon said in a written statement. “But alongside every landmark and…
|
-
 Sometimes, bits of breaking news make it hard to see the big picture. But real estate reporter Steve Vockrodt assembles that puzzle with a recent story linking together events that tell a bigger tale about RED Development LLC, once one of the area’s hottest retail developers.
In the span of a week, RED sold its One Nineteen shopping center in Leawood, and a federal judge appointed a receiver for RED’s signature Legends Outlets Kansas City. And as the article shows, that’s just the tip of the…
|
-
 Baseball fans from as far away as South Korea, Puerto Rico and Japan have bought tickets to Tuesday’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Kansas City, according to ticket reseller StubHub.
Tickets remain on sale from both StubHub and Ticketmaster reseller TicketsNow for the big game and for Monday’s Home Run Derby.
TicketsNow had 408 All-Star Game tickets left for sale at 10:45 a.m. Monday, ranging from $298 to $6,295 each.
The average price for an All-Star Game ticket sold on TicketsNow…
|
-
 Mariner Wealth Advisors has acquired a majority interest in the wealth-management division of Orizon Investment Counsel LLC.
The purchase price was not disclosed.
The acquired portions of Omaha-based Orizon include about $300 million in assets under management in 1,225 accounts. Leawood-based Mariner Wealth has about $3.3 billion in assets under management.
The acquired entity will take the Mariner Wealth Advisors name. The deal adds 14 wealth professionals, including four senior wealth advisers,…
|
-
 Saint Luke’s South Hospital has folded its patient education program into its existing Diabetes & Endocrinology Center and given the program a new address.
In a Monday release, the Overland Park hospital said the combination, which took effect July 2, will improve patient care by linking individual care plans for patients with Type 1, Type 2 and gestational diabetes with classes about exercise, diet, and how to take and understand blood glucose levels. It also will allow greater collaboration…
|
-
 U.S. freight levels are expected to rise significantly during the next decade, with trucking companies enjoying most of the benefit, according to American Trucking Associations.
The trade group on Monday released its transportation forecast through 2023. The forecast predicts that total freight tonnage will increase 21 percent by 2023 and that industry revenue will grow 59 percent. It said trucking’s share of tonnage will increase 2 percentage points to 69.6 percent, while its share of revenue…
|
-
 U.S. Highway 169 just north of downtown Kansas City is about to close through mid-December for road construction. The route, which Northland motorists use to reach the Broadway Bridge into Downtown, handles more than 35,000 vehicles a day.
“It will affect businesses. It will be inconvenient for an awful lot of people who rely on this corridor,” said Steve Porter, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation. “Yet it’s important that we do this now.”
The closing, planned for…
|
-
Runners took to the streets of Downtown, while upcoming ballplayers and celebrity softball players took to Kauffman Stadium as warm-up acts for the All-Star Game.
An estimated 8,000 runners participated in the All-Star 5K run to raise money to fight cancer, Fox4 Kansas City reports. Among those participating in the event were former Royal Mike Sweeney and others driven by thoughts of relatives and friends who have had cancer.
The United States was a world beater in the Futures Game, with up-and-coming…
|
-
Runners took to the streets of Downtown, while upcoming ballplayers and celebrity softball players took to Kauffman Stadium as warm-up acts for the All-Star Game.
An estimated 8,000 runners participated in the All-Star 5K run to raise money to fight cancer, Fox4 Kansas City reports. Among those participating in the event were former Royal Mike Sweeney and others driven by thoughts of relatives and friends who have had cancer.
The United States was a world beater in the Futures Game, with up-and-coming…
|
-
|
Article From:Joplin Globe
Open seven days a week, ...
|
-
 Best Buy Co. Inc. is laying off 2,400 employees chainwide, a company spokesman said Friday. There was no word about whether Kansas City-area employees would be affected, but no additional stores will close as part of the layoffs.
Bruce Hight, a spokesman for Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), said the layoffs will affect about 600 employees of Geek Squad, the company’s repair services division. The remaining 1,800 layoffs involve store employees. Hight said the employees were informed Friday; the layoffs will…
|
-
First State Bank of St. Charles plans to open two Kansas City-area offices with a combined work force of between 40 and 50 employees.
First State Bank primarily has offices in the St. Charles and St. Louis areas, as well as at Lake of the Ozarks.
The bank plans home mortgage lending and originating offices in Overland Park and Lee’s Summit.
Rita Rieke, previously a senior vice president with Pulaski Bank Home Lending in Overland Park, is part of the new local management staff at First State…
|
-
Henry Ford will be among the first inductees into the American Royal’s new National Barbecue Hall of Fame, so it seems fitting that Midwest Ford Dealers has climbed on board as the inaugural sponsor.
The group is sponsoring the first class of inductees, which also includes Johnny Trigg and Guy Fieri. The ceremony is Oct. 6 at the World Series of Barbecue.
“We are proud to sponsor the National Barbecue Hall of Fame and are honored that Ford Motor Co.’s founder, Henry Ford, is being recognized…
|
-
The Kansas Department of Transportation approved millions of dollars’ worth of low bids in June, and about $3 million of the road work is headed for the Kansas City area.
KDOT announced the approved bids in a Friday release.
Nearly $1.08 million of the approved bids are for projects in Johnson County. They include a $232,927 lighting project near Interstate 35 and 75th Street, which went to Total Electric Contractors Inc.; a $369,441 bridge overlay on Kansas Highway 10, which went to Comanche…
|
-
The Overland Park City Council will hold a public hearing Monday to discuss whether to approve a community improvement district for the West Park Shopping Center.
Mission-based MD Management Inc., which owns the shopping center at the northeast corner of 87th and Farley streets, wants the city to approve a 1 percent sales tax increase for purchases made within West Park to help pay for renovations.
The estimated cost of the improvements is $3.1 million, according to a petition submitted to the…
|
-
 Major League Baseball, the Kansas City Royals and various law enforcement agencies are teaming up to crack down on counterfeit merchandise and tickets during All-Star Week in Kansas City.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force, which includes the Kansas City Police Department and Homeland Security, will use undercover investigators to target production and sale of the illicit items from Friday through Tuesday. That means they’ll be aggressive about checking for the necessary licenses or permits to…
|
-
 Ford Motor Co.’s decision to move Escape production out of the Kansas City area meant 30 workers put in their last day at a Riverside plant last week.
The Woodbridge Group plant, which produces foam seats for vehicles such as the Escape, had about 150 employees before the layoffs.
However, better news may be coming.
“Nothing is for sure, but there’s a good possibility we’ll be getting some more business here,” said Plant Manager Rex Rogers, though he wouldn’t give specifics about any…
|
-
 Hanna Rubber Co. sold to a Maryland company, but will continue to operate largely unchanged, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.
Kansas City-based Hanna Rubber was acquired by Singer Equities for an undisclosed price. It is Singer’s seventh portfolio company, and its first in the Midwest.
Singer itself is in the portfolio of AEA Investors.
Hanna Rubber, founded in 1925, has 42 employees in its Kansas City headquarters. It manufactures rubber industrial parts and distributes plastic parts.
|
-
 In this week’s edition, the Kansas City Business Journal ranks the area's top animal health companies based on their number of full-time equivalent local employees.
See the top 5
For the full list, subscribers can take a look at this week’s edition of the Kansas City Business Journal. The list also includes company descriptions, top local executives and a re-ranking based on when they entered the Kansas City area.
Want more research like this? Check out the 29th Annual Book of Lists in print…
|
-
 A sports merchandise store’s plan to open a location in Columbia is catching flak from people who fear there’s a whiff of Jayhawk in its background, The Kansas City Star reports.
Rally House, which has stores in the Kansas City area and in Texas, has been criticized online for plans to enter the hometown of the University of Missouri Tigers. The chain shares creators with Kansas Sampler stores, which sell a range of University of Kansas and Kansas State University goods and were founded by two…
|
-
The U.S. House wants to trim billions in food stamp spending and expand farm subsidies as part of a new farm bill, Reuters reports.
The House is working on a bill that would reduce U.S. Department of Agriculture spending by $35 billion during 10 years, with most of that coming from the food stamp program. The proposed cut is $12 billion more than the Senate would cut.
At the same time, the House would boost target prices triggering payments to growers of grain and oilseeds by as much as 40 percent.
Passage…
|
-
 Kansas City’s Hanna Rubber Co. has sold to Singer Equities, a portfolio company of New York-based AEA Investors, for an undisclosed price.
The 100 percent acquisition closed Monday and was announced Thursday.
Hanna Rubber, which employs 42 in its new headquarters near Boulevard Brewing Co., had been an asset in late owner James Vandergrift’s estate.
Chairwoman Connie Wodlinger represented the Vandergrift estate in the acquisition and will cede her role in the company.
Hanna Rubber, founded…
|
-
Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP and Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP have earned props from the Women in Law Empowerment Forum for incorporating women into top leadership positions.
Both Kansas City-based firms have appeared more than once on the list of what the forum dubs as Gold Standard Firms.
Shook was one of three firms on the roughly 50-firm list to meet all six criteria.
Law firms with 100 or more practicing lawyers in the United States are eligible if they meet at least three measures. The criteria…
|
-
 Baseball fans will descend on downtown Kansas City on Friday as Major League Baseball’s All-Star FanFest debuts at the Kansas City Convention Center.
The exhibits cover 450,000 square feet and include interactive activities, autographs from baseball players, merchandise and historical exhibits. An MLB representative said the whole thing will take people three-and-a-half to four hours to complete.
See the slide show
Former Kansas City Royals All-Star George Brett said the All-Star Game and FanFest…
|
-
 The Johnson County Board of Commissioners has landed on an $815.1 million proposed maximum budget for operations and capital improvements, and the proposal doesn’t raise property taxes.
The plan represents a 0.6 percent increase from the current budget of $810.6 million. It estimates $669.79 million in expenditures, down $12.2 million from the current budget, and reserves of nearly $145.3 million.
According to the new budget, good for the fiscal year that starts Jan. 1, the mill levy would stay…
|
-
 Scammers have been trying to get Social Security information from Kansas City Power & Light Co. customers by telling them they’re eligible for a $1,500 credit or payment from the government.
The scam has existed nationwide since as early as March but hit the Kansas City area this week. Four people have called in locally to report it.
The scammers have visited customers’ homes, posted fliers, used social media and text messages. They’re asking people to make immediate payments using a fraudulent…
|
-
 Google Inc. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt quickly turned to video during a recent on-stage discussion about the company’s ultra-fast Internet project in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.
Despite Google officials’ tight-lipped approach to speculation that the company (Nasdaq: GOOG) is mulling a Google TV offering when it rolls out the 1-gigabit network later this year, Schmidt emphasized the high-definition video quality that such speed offers when he spoke to a crowd at last week’s…
|
-
 Ford Motor Co.’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo ranks as the top-producing U.S. factory, according to a report in Automobile Magazine.
And the General Motors Co. Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kan., isn’t far behind, ranking No. 10 on the top 15 list. The figures are based on 2011 data gathered by Automotive News.
According to the report, Ford’s plant in Claycomo turned out 460,338 cars last year, helped by Ford deciding to boost Escape production before the new 2013 model…
|
-
Whether you’re going across town or across the country, new apps and social media are helping make your trip easier and safer, The New York Times reports.
Always a tough sell in this country, ride-sharing and car-pooling have seen social media and advances in digital technology remove “a significant amount of barriers,” the newspaper reports.
|
-
Some big retailers — including Walmart, Best Buy and Macy’s — are doing what they can to lure online shoppers back into their stores, The New York Times reports.
The retailers are transforming their stores into extensions of their online operations, adding return centers, pickup locations and free shipping outlets, the newspaper reports.
|
-
A New Jersey developer will continue its efforts to renovate housing buildings in Kansas City with the purchase of the Broadway Ambassador, The Kansas City Star reports.
Antheus Capital plans to turn the deteriorated nine-story building into market-rate apartments, the Star reports.
Antheus has done similar redevelopments on many buildings along Armour Boulevard.
|
-
The All-Star Game isn’t just bringing hordes of fans to Kauffman Stadium. Thousands of media employees also will attend. So many reporters will be at the game, in fact, that workers have spent all week constructing extra places for all of them to sit during next week’s game.
When Major League Baseball announced that Kansas City would host the 2012 All-Star Game, officials weren’t sure how many news outlets would send people to the event.
“With the economy down and this being an Olympics…
|
-
 Verizon Wireless soon will expand its Kansas City-area 4G LTE footprint to 12 more cities, the wireless carrier announced Tuesday.
Verizon’s expansion coincides with Overland Park-based Sprint Nextel Corp.’s (NYSE: S) rollout of its new 4G LTE network in the Kansas City area. Sprint’s network goes live July 15.
Verizon didn’t announce a date, but it said the expansion of the faster wireless network would go live in the cities in “coming weeks,” according to a release.
Missouri cities…
|
-
 Menard Inc. is making its way to Overland Park.
The Wisconsin-based hardware and home improvement chain has submitted plans to the Overland Park Planning Commission for a location at the northeast corner of 135th Street and Pflumm Road.
The Overland Park Planning Commission will take up plans for the 214,329-square-foot site on July 13.
The project would include a 162,000-square-foot Menards store and six pad sites along 135th Street; there are no known users yet for those sites.
Menards is making…
|
-
 Missouri wrapped up fiscal year 2012 with a 3.2 percent boost in revenue.
The state's revenue collections totaled $7.34 billion between July 2011 and the end of June 2012, State Budget Director Linda Luebbering announced Tuesday.
June figures also surpassed those from a year prior, with the state taking in $729.2 million last month, up 1.8 percent from June 2011.
Tax refunds dropped to $1.28 billion in fiscal 2012, down 4.4 percent compared with fiscal 2011.
Here’s a look at the collections…
|
-
 Kansas City is the third-best large Midwest city for a weekend getaway, according to the July/August issue of AAA Midwest Traveler magazine.
St. Louis took the top spot in the annual report for the third straight year, followed by Chicago. AAA members from Missouri, eastern Kansas, southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana vote to determine the “Best Large City for a Weekend Getaway” rankings.
Read more from the St. Louis Business Journal, an affiliated publication.
|
-
 The last local round of Social Madness started Tuesday, pitting two companies in each category to land on a Kansas City winner.
The winners in the small, medium and large company categories will be determined July 16.
In the large company category, which includes those with 500 or more employees, Garmin International Inc. (Score: 1,862) is taking on Cerner Corp. (Score: 1,154).
The medium company category — 100-499 employees — is a face off between VinSolutions (Score: 192) and Lee Jeans (Score:…
|
-
 Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. posted their highest monthly sales numbers in years during June, and those numbers got a boost from Kansas City-made vehicles.
Ford tallied its best-ever June, delivering 207,759 vehicles to dealerships, up 7 percent compared with the same month last year. GM’s June sales increased 15.5 percent to 248,750 vehicles.
The Ford F-Series pickup, the F-150 model of which is made at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, saw sales jump 10.9 percent to…
|
-
Woodruff Sweitzer has purchased independent agency Paradowski Creative Inc. in a deal announced Tuesday.
Woodruff Sweitzer, a Columbia-based marketing and public relations agency with a significant presence in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District, acquired a St. Louis-based design agency that counts The Monsanto Co. and Anheuser-Busch InBev among its clients.
Financial terms of the acquisition, which was finalized Monday, were not disclosed.
Both agencies retain their names.
Woodruff Sweitzer…
|
-
 Don’t worry if you haven’t made Fourth of July plans yet — there’s plenty to choose from in the Kansas City area.
Here’s a look at some of the fireworks displays and events going on Wednesday in the metro area. (See more on the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association website.) Many municipalities don't allow fireworks or have burn bans because it's so dry, but formal events will offer plenty of sparks.
Jackson County Fourth of July Appreciation Celebration
The event will feature…
|
-
The University of Missouri-Kansas City has picked three sites as possible landing spots for a downtown arts campus.
A series of feasibility studies points to Barney Allis Plaza, a site that includes two blocks between Wyandotte and Main streets north of 17th Street, and a site on a three-block stretch near Broadway and 17th Street.
The study aligns with one of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s “Big 5” goals to move the UMKC Conservatory and other arts programs to a downtown campus…
|
-
 A bicycle sharing program will make its debut in downtown Kansas City on Tuesday.
Ninety volunteers are scheduled to ride the new bikes on a three-mile route over the Heart of America Bridge and into Downtown during the lunch hour. After pausing for lunch and a welcoming ceremony at Ilus Davis Park, the volunteers will pedal the bikes to one of 12 docking stations throughout Downtown.
The Kansas City B-Cycle program, sponsored by BikeWalkKC and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, was announced…
|
-
Three sites are being considered for the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s proposed Downtown Campus for Arts, The Kansas City Star reports.
The center is expected to give more than 600 students ready access to existing downtown arts venues and enliven the arts scene, UMKC officials said. Work on the campus is expected to take 20 years at a price tag of more than $165.5 million. Funds are expected to come from private donors and the state.
One of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s…
|
-
Girard Medical Center, a small hospital near Pittsburg, Kan., is fighting with North Kansas City-based Cerner about problems encountered trying to install an electronic medical records system, The Kansas City Star reports.
Among the allegations Girard has listed in the dispute, now in arbitration:
• Cerner did not follow through on features the company promised Girard officials that the system had.
• Cerner exhibited “disparaging attitudes” about the medical center.
• The system wasn’t…
|
-
 A Kansas City-area startup looking to create a more direct link in the food chain between meat lovers and their products has raised more than $1 million in seed financing.
AgLocal LLC’s investors included Kansas City-based private equity firm OpenAir Equity Partners.
Fairway-based AgLocal plans to use the money to build out its technology platform, increase partnerships with meat farmers and potentially hire out-of-state engineers, CEO Naithan Jones said.
AgLocal aims to connect health-conscious…
|
-
 Bluestem owners Colby and Megan Garrelts are opening their second Kansas City-area concept, called Rye, in Leawood’s Mission Farms.
Megan Garrelts said they hope to open the restaurant in October.
Rye will celebrate the couple’s Midwestern roots with foods like smoked pork chops, baby back ribs, fried chicken, fruit cobblers and ice-box cakes. Even Colby Garrelts’ mother’s recipe for Parker House rolls will make an appearance on the menu.
The food will have a seasonal, local focus and…
|
-
 The Missouri Department of Economic Development exaggerates the number of jobs created and misrepresents the level of investment gained through the Missouri Quality Jobs incentive, according to a state audit.
Missouri State Auditor Thomas Schweich released an audit of the 7-year-old economic development incentive and took a dim view of the state agency in charge of administering it.
Missouri Quality Jobs went into effect in 2005 and allows qualifying companies to keep employee withholding taxes…
|
-
 Merriam, a suburb replete with car dealerships, will host ground for three new forthcoming locations.
The 24-acre tract off Interstate 35 and 67th Street known as Merriam Pointe already has a Toyota dealership under construction.
Block & Co. Inc., which represented land owner Merriam Investors LLC, announced that it sold 7 acres of land for a Lexus dealership.
A 5-acre tract sold to Merriam Auto Mall Developers LLC for a third dealership to be announced later.
David Block and Mark McConahay handled…
|
-
 Track repairs west of Jefferson City are expected to create delays for Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner train service between Kansas City and St. Louis from July 9 through Oct. 20.
In a release, Amtrak said Train 314 will operate an hour earlier than scheduled, leaving Kansas City at 7:15 a.m. Train 316 will run an hour later than scheduled, leaving Kansas City at 5 p.m.
Train 311 will operate two hours earlier than scheduled, leaving St. Louis at 7:15 a.m. and arriving in Kansas City at 12:55…
|
-
Some of the designers of Kansas City International Airport say it’s time for a new terminal, The Kansas City Star reports.
Clarence Kivett and Bob Berkebile, who helped design KCI’s three horshoe-shaped terminals, said the design succeeded in minimizing the distance from car to plane. But airline consolidation and tighter security have left the design outdated.
The architects, and others, met with Kansas City Aviation Director Mark VanLoh. The Aviation Department is expected to recommend construction…
|
-
 Kansas ended its fiscal year with a pleasant surprise, reporting that strong June revenue pushed the year’s total above estimates.
The state ended the fiscal year on Friday with $4.2 million more in revenue than was anticipated in its April report.
Revenue for the month of June was $32.3 million, or 5.6 percent more than estimates. Corporate tax receipts last month exceeded estimates by $19.7 million, or 44 percent, and sales tax receipts beat estimates by $9.4 million.
For the year, the state’s…
|
-
 The opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games has yet to take place, but Kansas City architecture firm Populous already is a big winner, The Kansas City Star reports.
Populous has designed a number of the venues that will be used in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, including the stadium where the games officially will begin and end. The firm also worked on the Olympic Park, Olympic Village and International Broadcast center.
The construction value of projects the firm has helped design tops…
|
-
Billy Butler will represent the Kansas City Royals in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. MLB released rosters on Sunday for the July 10 game in Kansas City.
Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton was the clear choice of fans, getting a record 11 million votes. San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey led the National League, with 7.6 million votes.
The Rangers and New York Yankees each have three players on the American League starter squad. The Giants have three starters for the National…
|
-
Applebee’s is relying on fresh, seasonal ingredients to keep its concept fresh in consumers’ minds, CEO Mike Archer said in an interview with USA Today.
Archer said an example of the change for the Kansas City-based chain is a salad on the summer menu that includes strawberries, which formerly had only been used in desserts and drinks. But he said the move to emphasizing fresh ingredients goes back to a move four years ago to switch to fresh-made hamburgers rather than frozen patties.
Asked…
|
|
|
|