Hantover Inc. and its subsidiary, ARY Inc., are moving from Kansas
City to Overland Park, bringing 91 employees and the promise of an
additional 39 jobs over the next five years.
The company, a
distributor for the food processing and general manufacturing
industries, is investing $3.3 million in its new offices at 5200 W.
110th St., according to an announcement Friday by the Overland Park
Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Council. It had been at 10301
Hickman Mills Drive.
“We are pleased to become corporate citizens
of Overland Park considering the quality of life available for our staff
and economic opportunity for our company,” Bernard Huff, president of
Hantover, said in a statement.
Hantover received incentives from the state of Kansas as part of its move, but state officials declined to provide details.
“We
did give incentives, but until the time the contracts are signed
they’re not public,” said Dan Lara, spokesman for the Kansas Department
of Commerce.
The company was founded in 1939 as a distributor of
production supplies to the food industry. It has 10 distribution centers
across North America and works with 2,000 vendors and 40,000 customers,
according to the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce Economic Development
Council.
more
Monday, September 24, 2012
Wyandotte County dreaming big, accomplishing some developments
Development was a big story in Kansas City, Kan., recently, with the
groundbreaking of a new apartment complex at 130th and State, a new
community center at Donnelly College and an effort to draw attention to
the need for more development in the northeast area.
Just about the same time as all this happening, Dwayne Knott, who is on the board of the Friends of Kaw Point, was dreaming up a new idea for development at Kaw Point Park and the levee in Kansas City, Kan.
“We’re working very hard to bring an interpretive center here,” Knott said during the Lewis and Clark re-enactment event at the park last weekend.
Kaw Point Park has one of the richest histories of any place in the community, according to Knott. First at the site, at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, was the Kanza tribe, he said. Then, Lewis and Clark stopped at the site during their expedition to explore the new territory in 1804. The Wyandots in 1843 purchased ground and formed Wyandot City in what is now Kansas City, Kan., and then sold it. The Exodusters were next at the site in 1873. In 1925, the last Exoduster building was torn down, he added. In 1942, craft built here that was later used in the Normandy landing was launched from Kaw Point.
What’s at the site now is the Kaw Point Park, with the levee and the sea wall, a small amphitheater, a small outdoor education pavilion, the Confluence of Nations Plaza, that tells about Lewis and Clark and native tribes, along with trails, and a boat dock.
Just about the same time as all this happening, Dwayne Knott, who is on the board of the Friends of Kaw Point, was dreaming up a new idea for development at Kaw Point Park and the levee in Kansas City, Kan.
“We’re working very hard to bring an interpretive center here,” Knott said during the Lewis and Clark re-enactment event at the park last weekend.
Kaw Point Park has one of the richest histories of any place in the community, according to Knott. First at the site, at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, was the Kanza tribe, he said. Then, Lewis and Clark stopped at the site during their expedition to explore the new territory in 1804. The Wyandots in 1843 purchased ground and formed Wyandot City in what is now Kansas City, Kan., and then sold it. The Exodusters were next at the site in 1873. In 1925, the last Exoduster building was torn down, he added. In 1942, craft built here that was later used in the Normandy landing was launched from Kaw Point.
What’s at the site now is the Kaw Point Park, with the levee and the sea wall, a small amphitheater, a small outdoor education pavilion, the Confluence of Nations Plaza, that tells about Lewis and Clark and native tribes, along with trails, and a boat dock.
Rural KC Real Estate answers questions about moving to the country
“While we laugh at the cartoon, we understand that it’s not that far off from what people are really expecting,” said Bill Gaughan founding partner of Rural KC Real Estate, a real estate team specializing in selling country property.
“If we could pick the two most popular attractions of moving to the country, privacy and seclusion would be at the top of the list,” said Alice Bilyeu, partner with Rural KC. “I would bet that 80 percent of all the buyers that contact us envision a home with a winding driveway hidden back on their property and as much privacy as possible. For that reason we search diligently to list secluded properties as they are so much in demand.”
And while homes like that are hard to find, Rural KC is currently featuring several gorgeous secluded properties, Gaughan said. These properties can be found at Rural KC’s website, RuralKC.com. They include:
more
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Will Google Fiber really increase the property value of your home?
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Google promises its new fiber will increase the
speed of your Internet. It also promises that if you get the new
service, it can increase your property value by thousands of dollars.
There are still a lot of questions about what Google Fiber will actually look like once it's up-and-running in homes.
When Google Fiber launched last month, the company promoted a property value increase between $2,000 and $5,000 per home.
"As
much as I would love to say that we're going to see prices skyrocket
because Google Fiber is coming to these communities, I don't really see
it being a factor that's going to make somebody come to this community,"
said Katie Yeager, CEO of Your Future Address.
Yeager understands how the added value can up the sale price, but she's skeptical of Fiber having as much of an impact as Google says it will.
But Carlos Casas, a team leader with Google Fiber, said the service is a lure for home buyers.
"I heard of a family who is moving from Colorado looking for a house that's fiber-ready now in Kansas City, just because they want to have access to that technology," Casas said at a community meeting at Trinity Community Church in Kansas City, Kan., on Monday.
more
There are still a lot of questions about what Google Fiber will actually look like once it's up-and-running in homes.
When Google Fiber launched last month, the company promoted a property value increase between $2,000 and $5,000 per home.
"As
much as I would love to say that we're going to see prices skyrocket
because Google Fiber is coming to these communities, I don't really see
it being a factor that's going to make somebody come to this community,"
said Katie Yeager, CEO of Your Future Address.Yeager understands how the added value can up the sale price, but she's skeptical of Fiber having as much of an impact as Google says it will.
But Carlos Casas, a team leader with Google Fiber, said the service is a lure for home buyers.
"I heard of a family who is moving from Colorado looking for a house that's fiber-ready now in Kansas City, just because they want to have access to that technology," Casas said at a community meeting at Trinity Community Church in Kansas City, Kan., on Monday.
more
U.S. Federal Reserve Beige Book: Kansas City District (Text)
Real Estate and Construction. Residential and commercial real
estate activity continued to improve in July and early August,
and construction activity strengthened. Residential home sales
and prices rose, and home inventories fell. Contacts reported
multiple offers on homes and expected continued housing market
improvements in coming months. Homes under $300,000 sold
particularly well, while homes priced over $500,000 and condos
were slow to sell in some markets. Several contacts reported
that a large inventory of homes in foreclosure has been held
back and could put downward pressure on prices when the homes
come onto the market. Builders reported an increase in housing
starts and a rise in new home prices as well as improvement in
the traffic of potential buyers. Land prices and the cost of
building materials rose during the survey period as demand
improved. Commercial real estate conditions also improved.
Construction and sales of commercial real estate properties
rose, real estate prices and rents increased, and vacancy rates
continued to fall. Several commercial real estate contacts
expected uncertainty surrounding the presidential election to
slow activity until late in the year. Developers reported that
access to credit remained unchanged.
more
more
KC area becomes a hub for contact centers
You could be ordering from someone in a remote call center.
That’s one of the more unusual examples of how call centers are tethered to just about every business imaginable.
And it’s all good for the Kansas City area, where tens of thousands of people earn a living as customer service representatives in hundreds of contact centers.
“We’re constantly recruiting for that skill set
throughout the Kansas City market,” said Bill Welty, regional director
at Grafton Staffing.Ordering from a catalog? Checking your bank balance? Asking a tax question? Refilling a prescription? Calling for a takeout delivery?
Call centers have been around for decades. But if you answer yes to any of the above questions, you’re increasingly likely to be sending an email, filling out an online form, having a web page chat or sending a tweet that involves one of these centers.
Yesterday’s “call” center is today’s “contact” center — and that means hyped-up demand for customer service representatives with broader skills.
Fortunately, providers say, it’s a demand that’s being met.
The local industry, overall, weathered the recession well and remains strong for all the reasons that it grew here in the first place.
“It’s the same reason why most broadcasters come from the Midwest,” said Shawn Hoy, who manages the OptumRx pharmacy service center in Overland Park. “Accent neutralization.”
more
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Will Fed's Mortgage Buying Juice the Housing Recovery?
Home prices are stabilizing, and new
construction is bouncing back, but apparently the U.S. Federal Reserve
isn't buying a bullish housing recovery.
Its
announcement Thursday that it would buy up to $40 billion in agency
mortgage-backed securities every month, with no clear finish line, says
loud and clear that the Fed thinks housing needs more stimulus. (Read More: Fed Pulls Trigger, to Buy Mortgages in Effort to Lower Rates.)
More
 |
Mortgage
rates are already hovering near record lows, but mortgage applications,
especially to purchase a home, have been weak. So many have refinanced
already at low rates, and so many more are unable to refinance because
of lack of home equity or high fees.
As for home buying, the real growth in that area this year has been among investors on the low end, largely using all cash.
Supplies of foreclosed properties have been shrinking dramatically, as those investors swarm auctions and bid on bulk deals. (Read More: How Investors Are Skewing Home Price Recovery.)
The hot and still heating rental market offers potentially more rewards than the volatile stock market.
In
turn, all that activity on the distressed end is pushing up home
prices. While overall foreclosure activity is falling, we could see
volumes of bank-owned properties for sale rising over the next few
months, as banks look to take advantage of rising demand and prices.
We are already seeing spikes in foreclosures activity in states where these cases had been backed up in the courts.More
Riverside ‘Open for Business’ with 260-Acre Office and Industrial Innovation Project City Names Briarcliff Development Co. to Lead Horizons
Riverside on Tuesday named a unit of Briarcliff Development Co. to
develop Horizons, a 260-acre site at Interstate 635 and Missouri 9, and
unveiled a plan calling for a park-like setting to be home for a
projected 5,900 jobs over the next generation.Briarcliff Development said construction would begin this year on an estimated $12 million plan, including 25 acres of lakes, three miles of tree-lined canals and land set aside for public use and recreational purposes that is projected to connect to the Missouri River Trail.
“Riverside is open for business,” declared Mayor Kathleen Rose. “In the years since the state-of-the-art Missouri River levee was built to protect hundreds of acres in our community, we focused on creating the best possible economic development initiative for land the city owns. We have that today.”
Saturday, September 8, 2012
US home prices rise in July by most in 6 years
WASHINGTON -- U.S. home prices
jumped 3.8 percent in the 12 months ending in July, according to a
private real estate data provider. The year-over-year increase was the
biggest in six years, further evidence that the housing market is
steadily recovering.
CoreLogic said Tuesday that home prices also rose 1.3 percent in July from June. That's the fifth straight increase in both the monthly and year-over-year price indexes.
The index is the third national measure to show steady increases. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index posted its first annual increase in nearly two years last week. And a federal government housing agency has also reported annual increases.
The states with the biggest gains according to CoreLogic over the past 12 months were Arizona, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota and Colorado. In Arizona, prices have risen 16.6 percent since July 2011. Idaho has posted a 10-percent gain in that time.
More
CoreLogic said Tuesday that home prices also rose 1.3 percent in July from June. That's the fifth straight increase in both the monthly and year-over-year price indexes.
The index is the third national measure to show steady increases. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index posted its first annual increase in nearly two years last week. And a federal government housing agency has also reported annual increases.
The states with the biggest gains according to CoreLogic over the past 12 months were Arizona, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota and Colorado. In Arizona, prices have risen 16.6 percent since July 2011. Idaho has posted a 10-percent gain in that time.
More
Realtors: US homes selling at faster pace
LOS ANGELES -- U.S. homes are taking less time to sell than a year ago, reflecting more homebuyer demand and fewer bank-owned homes and other properties available for sale in some markets.
The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that the median time a previously occupied home was listed for sale shrank in July to 69 days. That's down from 98 days in the same month last year.
One-third of the homes purchased in July were on the market for less than a month, while one in five was on the market for at least six months. A home's median time on the market has been declining steadily since January, the trade group said.
Between 2004 and 2005, the high-flying years of the housing boom, the median selling time of previously occupied homes was four weeks, NA
Read more
AMC’s new Chinese owner announces a $1.3 million donation to local high schools
“As a new participant in the Kansas City area business community through our acquisition of AMC Entertainment, we would like to mark the occasion with a contribution aimed at supporting the future,” Wang said in his prepared remarks.
“Nothing is more important to communities anywhere in the world than the development and well-being of our children.”
More
Kansas City housing market builds momentum: Sales, prices, construction pick up
 |
| Steve Banks, president of the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors |
New home construction is at its highest level since 2008. The overall number of homes sold is up 20 percent since last year, and the inventory of
Since the beginning of the year, the average number of days a home is on the market has decreased from 100 to 82; the average sale price has increased from $150,000 to $173,000.
More
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