Overland Park Community News

KC weighs $1.89M contract with BNIM for streetcar expansion study

2013-05-24T18:32:14Z

The Kansas City Council may award architecture firm BNIM a $1.89 million contract to lead the study of the potential placement of lines for the second phase of the streetcar project. The council put a first read on Ordinance No. 130424 on Thursday. The ordinance authorizes Bob Langenkamp, the director of planning and development, to enter into a contract with BNIM. Next week, a joint committee — made up of the council's Transportation and Infrastructure, and Planning, Zoning and Economic Development...(read more)

EDC announces new senior managers

2013-05-24T15:16:27Z

The Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City introduced two new senior leadership team members during its Friday board meeting. Bernardo Ramirez will serve as the EDC's executive vice president and chief operating officer, and T'Risa McCord will serve as senior vice president and chief administrative officer. Ramirez, who succeeds retiring COO Gloria Wood, has been executive director of the Hispanic Economic Development Corp. in Kansas City. At the EDC, he will be responsible for managing the…...(read more)

Social Media Matters: Amy's Baking — a lesson in what not to do

2013-05-24T13:16:35Z

Amy’s Baking Co., a bakery and bistro in Scottsdale, Ariz., received quite a bit of attention on countless social media platforms and in the media recently — and not for good reasons. The resulting word-of-mouth firestorm was enough to fill, well, this column with social media, crisis communications and plain ol’ business lessons. Mass media like TV can amplify and broadcast your business problem. But social media gives your problem legs, allowing it to live on beyond the typical news cycle.…...(read more)

SoftBank, Dish continue to wrangle for Sprint, Clearwire

2013-05-24T13:16:18Z

The four-player mess — Sprint Nextel Corp., SoftBank Corp., Clearwire Corp. and Dish Network Corp. — that’s been dominating wireless news lately hasn’t let up as the parties continue to wrangle for control of one or the other. Sprint (NYSE: S) recently sweetened its offer for Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) by 14 percent in its “best and final” offer, but that has failed to sway opponents, raising speculation Sprint will have to up its bid again, Bloomberg reports. Dish (Nasdaq: DISH) also…...(read more)

KC business owner charged in $2.8M scheme to defraud Army

2013-05-23T22:46:08Z

The owner of a Kansas City office supply company has been accused of a $2.8 million scheme to defraud the U.S. Army. Virgie Dillard, 70, of Lee's Summit, the CEO of Missouri Office Systems & Supplies Inc., sold counterfeit computer equipment to the Army, according to a 12-count indictment unsealed Thursday. An employee, Roland Evans, 43, of Lee's Summit, was also charged, along with Mark Morgan, 45, of Newport Coast, Calif., and his company, PRM Technology Equipment LLC, which allegedly supplied...(read more)

CBRE will join Colliers in American Century tower

2013-05-23T22:40:48Z

Kansas City's close-knit commercial real estate brokerage community is about to get even closer. The Kansas City office of CBRE Inc. has executed a 10-year lease for 10,000 square feet on the sixth floor of American Century Tower II, 4520 Main St. — home of the 10th-floor, Kansas City offices of Colliers International. The CBRE office's 46 employees, who currently have an office in the Park Central Plaza building a few blocks away at 4717 Grand Ave., are scheduled to move into their new space…...(read more)

New transit operation opening in OP, Mission (05/23/2013)

2013-05-23T22:08:10Z

Overland Park, KS - Park and ride, walk and ride, ......(read more)

Tnemec Co. sells equity stake

2013-05-23T22:03:49Z

Tnemec Co. Inc. sold $409,493 in equity in a private offering that commenced on May 13, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Kansas City-based provider of industrial coatings offered a total of $1.4 million in equity. Tnemec CEO Peter Cortelyou said the company is not raising capital for any specific business purpose. He said it's an annual stock offering. The capital is used to cover shareholders who leave the company or who retire and need to redeem stock. Share...(read more)

Kessinger/Hunter sues Olathe Station owner for commissions

2013-05-23T20:03:49Z

Commercial brokerage Kessinger/Hunter & Co. LC is suing the owner of the Olathe Station shopping center for unpaid leasing commissions and management fees. The suit, filed April 23 in Johnson County District Court, seeks almost $257,000, the bulk of it for unpaid invoices that Kessinger/Hunter has submitted since October, soon after the shopping center at the southwest corner of 119th Street and Blackbob Road fell into foreclosure. The owner, Passco Real Estate Enterprises Inc. of Irving, Calif.,...(read more)

JE Dunn's former headquarters to be demolished

2013-05-23T20:01:08Z

Kansas City general contractor JE Dunn Construction Co.'s former headquarters in the East Village district of downtown Kansas City will be demolished. The building at 929 Holmes St. — once described as a "rabbit warren with no windows" — will be torn down within the next three weeks, Nathan Pare´, property conservation manager with Kansas City's Neighborhood and Housing Services Department said. Pare´ said the total cost of the project, which includes environmental inspection and abatement…...(read more)

One Kansas City Place's loan goes on sale

2013-05-23T19:59:32Z

The $86.7 million mortgage loan secured by Downtown’s tallest office building has been offered for sale. The sale of the debt secured by One Kansas City Place, a 42-story, 822,391-square-foot office tower at 1200 Main St., was announced to brokers on Tuesday by Jones Lang LaSalle, adviser to the seller, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Brokers contacted about the deal, however, said they were stumped as to the “why” behind the offering. And the building’s leasing firm, Executive Hills, did…...(read more)

Attention non-tech companies: Ignore Google+

2013-05-23T19:56:36Z

Businesses overwhelmed with social media’s buffet of current options can ignore at least one dish, a Kansas City social media professional advised Thursday. Not having a full-time social media staffer means focusing resources where the customers are, said Alisha Templeton, social media manager for Ameristar Casinos Inc. To be the most efficient, she recommended beginning with Twitter and Facebook because they have the most users. “Don’t waste your time on Google+, unless you’re a tech…...(read more)

Top 10 tips for grads from Steve Blank

2013-05-23T19:53:00Z

Long before he was giving commencement addresses, authoring go-to books on entrepreneurship, designing curriculum used around the world and teaching at top U.S. universities, Steve Blank was a college graduate on the brink of his career. The decision to be an entrepreneur came when he chose to "Do" rather than to "Be." That bit of advice and nine other insights grabbed us from the speech he gave to University of Minnesota engineering graduates last week. Here are the 10 Blankisms, for grads and…...(read more)

Suburban shopping centers will be auctioned

2013-05-23T19:23:43Z

Three struggling suburban shopping centers in the Kansas City area will be auctioned off after being taken back by their lender, LNR Property LLC. The three centers were acquired by Henry S. Miller Equity Partners for $70 million in 2006. They are Westbrooke Village, a 236,638-square-foot center in Shawnee; Regency Park, a 201,974-square-foot center in Overland Park; and Pinetree Plaza, a 134,750-square-foot center in Lee's Summit. The last of the property to go into receivership was the southern...(read more)

Joplin bankers share disaster recovery experience

2013-05-23T18:14:01Z

Two years ago, with huge swaths of Joplin, Mo., leveled by a massive tornado, Arvest Bank's Stuart Puckett learned the personal side of the banking equation. Friends, neighbors and longtime customers were streaming into the bank in great need. "I remember coming into the bank about a week after the storm, and we convened everybody in the lending group," said Puckett, a loan manager for Arvest in Joplin. "It was a Monday morning, and I basically told everybody, if you haven't figured out by now,…...(read more)