Missouri

Without a doubt, 2016 was a year to remember for the Kansas City apartment market. Employers, builders, operators and investors all had an eye on the flourishing metropolitan area and contributed to its ongoing strength, leading to a 20-year high for apartment occupancy. But in order to assess if 2017 will be as fruitful, a review of how each of these groups fared in 2016 and an analysis of the current economic climate should be taken into account. Employers A healthy economy underscored by an active employment market generates a cyclical effect whereby employers seek talent, talent seeks housing, and developers seek residents. According to Moody’s Analytics, total nonfarm payroll employment in the Kansas City metropolitan area in 2016 expanded by 1.5 percent following a 1.3 percent increase in 2015. Virgin Mobile USA, to name one active area employer, relocated its corporate headquarters from Warren, N.J., to downtown Kansas City as part of the company’s re-launch of its new brand under Sprint. The long-term location for the new headquarters is undetermined, but temporarily at least 50 new employees now work out of the One Kansas City Place building at 12th and Main streets. By year-end 2017, Berkadia Research projects total …

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ST. LOUIS — Bridgetown Trucking has moved its St. Louis warehouse to the Union Seventy Center Business Park. Bridgetown will occupy 22,000 square feet at 3901 Union Blvd. Bridgetown previously occupied 4,000 square feet in Chesterfield. The Union Seventy Center Business Park totals approximately 161 acres. The business park is located between downtown St. Louis and Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Brendan O’Brien of Hilliker Corp. represented the tenant and the landlord, Union Seventy Center Business Park. Bridgetown focuses on airfreight, flat bed and full truckloads, warehouse storage with pick and pack services, and order fulfillment.

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GRANDVIEW, MO. — Colliers International has arranged the sale of an industrial building in Grandview, about 17 miles south of Kansas City. The sales price was not disclosed. The 8,000-square-foot building is located at 12410 S. 71 Highway. John Stafford of Colliers represented the buyer, Vala Properties LLC. The R.H. Johnson Co. represented the seller, TM Grandview LLC.

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ROLLA, MO. — McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. has completed construction of the Delbert Day Cancer Institute at Phelps County Regional Medical Center in Rolla in central Missouri. The 37,000-square-foot cancer care facility occupies the first two levels of the new, four-story, 100,470-square-foot building constructed by McCarthy. Located at the north side of the main hospital campus, the $31.3 million building is connected to an adjacent medical office building via a pedestrian bridge.The new facility includes more than 63,000 square feet of medical office space to accommodate future tenants. The institute houses radiation therapies, nuclear medicine, infusion therapy, medical oncology and supporting lab and pharmacy services. To optimize efficiency, the project team employed Lean construction techniques, including the construction of prefabricated mechanical, engineering and plumbing systems, using building information modeling to reduce site waste. McCarthy also used advanced construction technologies such as a semi-automated robotic mason to enhance the efficiency of bricklaying. BSA LifeStructures designed the building.

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Nearly all of Kansas City is seeing a significant increase in retail and restaurant construction, with many new development projects now coming to fruition. Several of these new construction projects incorporate apartments and other types of entertainment, office or residential space above first-floor retail. Propelled by the recent opening of the streetcar and new apartment complexes across the city, retail in downtown Kansas City received a lot of leasing attention in 2016, according to CoStar Group. “More people are moving downtown for walkability and a taste of urban living, so retail positioned near the streetcar route or on the ground level of apartment buildings could see more demand,” wrote CoStar in its third-quarter overview of the Kansas City retail market. “In the area running from River Market down to Country Club Plaza, as much space leased in the first three quarters of 2016 as did in all of 2015.” Meanwhile, we are experiencing a number of projects where the traditional, older enclosed malls and retail strip centers are being torn down and redeveloped as mixed-use properties across the Kansas City retail market. Standout submarkets, corridors Annual deliveries in greater Kansas City averaged just over 1 million square feet per year …

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An influx of new workers and residents is expected in the Clayton submarket of St. Louis thanks to more than $630 million in office, residential and mixed-use development that is in the planning stages or currently under way. Health insurer Centene Corp. has announced that it will build a new 16-acre, $450 million campus expansion on the east edge of downtown Clayton at Hanley Road, Forsyth Boulevard and Carondelet Plaza. The project, set to break ground early this year, stands to effectively shift the center of Clayton while adding a mixed-use, Class A office-anchored business and lifestyle development to the submarket. Delivery of the 500,000-square-foot Phase I tower is set for late 2019. At the opposite end of the submarket, Koman Group expects to break ground on its proposed 330,000-square-foot, 14-story office and retail project, situated at the corner of Forsyth and Brentwood boulevards. Just across the street is another $68 million, 233,000-square-foot office project likely to begin in 2018. Proposed by Jared Novelly and Apogee Associates, the project would bring the total proposed office development to a robust 1 million square feet of new Class A space in downtown Clayton. As the premier office submarket in St. Louis, Clayton …

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ST. LOUIS — An investor group, led by Mark Nelson of Nelson McBride Development and Nelson Grumney of Neland Investment Management, has purchased a portfolio of five industrial buildings in St. Louis County for $10.9 million. Chicago-based First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. was the seller. Totaling 474,000 square feet, the office/warehouse, distribution and light manufacturing buildings are located in the mid-county area and Hazelwood, Mo. The buildings range in size from 44,100 square feet to 145,000 square feet. The investor group is planning to invest approximately $250,000 in building and site enhancements at the properties, which were developed in the 1970s. Lead tenants in the buildings include Waters of America LLC, Demar Logistics Inc., Roha and Superior Pool Products. Nelson McBride will manage the buildings.

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KANSAS CITY, MO. — In a joint venture deal, the Community Development Trust (CDT) and The Millenia Cos. have acquired Kensington Heights Apartments in Kansas City. The nine-story apartment complex includes 126 units and serves low-income senior citizens and people with disabilities. Kensington Heights Apartments is located near Interstate 70 and U.S. Highway 40, and is approximately 10 minutes from downtown Kansas City. The complex serves residents who earn 60 percent of the area median income. The equity investment totaled $1.8 million, and CDT and Millenia will complete $580,000 of capital improvements to ensure the apartments are maintained as high-quality affordable housing for elderly and disabled residents. CDT is a national investor in affordable housing. Millenia is a Cleveland-based real estate company specializing in the acquisition, rehabilitation and management of affordable and market rate properties.

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CHESTERFIELD, MO. — Knoebel Construction Inc. has moved its headquarters from Fenton, Mo. to Chesterfield in St. Louis County. The new location at 18333 Wings Corporate Drive more than doubles Knoebel Construction’s space to 9,688 square feet. The new headquarters features 18 offices organized into two wings for project management and accounting/administrative staff. The building also includes three conference rooms, a team engagement area, a full kitchen and 2,500 square feet of warehouse space. Daniel Hayes of NAI DESCO brokered the transaction. Knoebel Construction is a full-service general contractor specializing in retail development, restaurant, grocery and retail construction.

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The St. Louis industrial market is in the midst of historic development and deal making. As witnessed in many markets, “big bombers” — industrial facilities 500,000 square feet and larger — are coming out of the ground at a record pace. Better still, they are being leased and pre-leased at a record pace. By all accounts, the driver here is the new e-commerce phenomenon with major players like Amazon taking nearly 1.5 million square feet in the Metro East submarket. The two major developments in this submarket are Gateway Commerce Center, developed by TriStar, and the adjacent Lakeview Commerce Center, developed by Panattoni. In addition to Amazon, Gateway Commerce Center boosts a host of big box users such as P&G, Unilever and Saddle Creek Corp, the latter of which took 673,137 square feet last year at the Center. Tri-Star is in the process of completing two additional buildings in the Center: Gateway East 520 containing 520,000 square feet, and Gateway East 624 containing 624,000 square feet. In neighboring Lakeview Commerce Center, Amazon occupies additional space along with World Wide Technologies, occupying 769,500 square feet in the Center. Analyzing the data Let’s drill down further and let the numbers speak for …

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