Westlake Ace Hardware sells for $88M

Lenexa-base home improvement retail chain Westlake Ace Hardware sold to Ace Hardware Corp. for $88 million.

Westlake Ace Hardware previously was owned by Goldner Hawn Johnson & Morrison, a Minneapolis-based private equity firm.

The acquisition closed on Monday and was announced Tuesday.
Ace Hardware Corp. owns 85 stores in 33 markets, primarily in the Midwest and the Sun Belt.

Westlake Ace Hardware for a time joined Ace Hardware Corp. after starting in 1905 as simply Westlake Hardware in Huntsville, Mo.

In 2006, Goldner Hawn bought Westlake Ace Hardware, which is in 85 communities in seven states stretching from New Mexico to Iowa, including Missouri and Kansas.

Source

Laurus Corporation Acquires Hilton Hotel in Kansas City

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Laurus Corporation, a U.S.-based private real estate investment and development firm, announced that it has acquired the Hilton Kansas City Airport hotel in Kansas City, MO. The Hilton Kansas City Airport includes 347 guest rooms and suites, and provides 21,000 square feet of meeting space options in the Kansas City airport submarket. The property is strategically located fronting the well-traveled Interstate 29 and is less than five minutes from Kansas City International Airport, the second busiest airport in the state serving approximately 10.4 million travelers annually. The hotel is surrounded by more than 6 million square feet of office space, in addition to Fortune 500 companies, including General Motors, Ford Motors, Harley-Davidson, Toyota and Sony. It is also close to a wealth of shopping, dining, golf and entertainment activities, including NASCAR at the Kansas City Speedway, The College Basketball Experience, Kansas City Zoo, Sprint Center, Power & Light District and the World War I Liberty Memorial.

"This is Laurus' second closing on a Hilton property in the past week and completes our sixth acquisition for 2012," said Andres Szita, Chairman and Co-founder of Laurus Corporation. "Both the Hiltons offer investors quality full-service hotels in markets that have experienced significant RevPar growth over the past 12 months." 

"The Kansas City market features robust demand drivers and various value-add opportunities through renovation, operating efficiencies and management," noted Jean Paul Szita, President & Chief Financial Officer of Laurus Corporation. "We will execute an $8 million property improvement plan that will greatly elevate guest experience and NOI in the coming years." 

"The recognizable strength of the Hilton Brand and its reservation system adds credibility and liquidity avenues for both properties, and implemented operational efficiencies will position the hotels for a strong and stable return for investors," commented Philip Cyburt, Chief Executive Officer of Laurus Corporation. This is our third capital allocation from Laurus' Ethika Fund, partnering with institutional capital from Lowe Enterprise Investors, through a separate account investment managed on behalf of Ohio PERS.

Hilton Kansas City Airport is located at 8801 NW 112th Street, Kansas City, Missouri, 64153. Renovations include a modernization of the lobby and surrounding restaurant and bar which will feature chic, modern fixtures and decor. Guestrooms, meeting space and common areas will be revamped to elevate the overall guest satisfaction.

Laurus Corporation is a real estate investment and development company that specializes in hotels and resorts, office buildings, multifamily and mixed-use properties. Laurus employs an entrepreneurial investment strategy designed to consistently achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns by creating capital appreciation opportunities through repositioning, restructuring, re-development and intensive post acquisition asset management. It is affiliated with Ethika Investments, LLC, a real estate investment firm. 

SOURCE Laurus Corporation

200 Years of history sits atop a hill in Gladstone

"Little did the pioneers who carved out a life on Gladstone’s eastern edge realize that nearly 200 years later their homestead would become a national historic site and a preservation project for future generations.

In 2005, with the blessing of the farm’s owner, Lena Johnson, Gladstone purchased the house, some outbuildings and two acres of land for about $100,000. Two years later, the farm was named to the National Register for Historic Places.

In 1824, William and Rachel Allen applied for a land grant for the original 240-acre parcel. Soon after, they sold 130 acres to John and Polly Hightower. No record exists pinpointing an exact date, but between 1824 and the early 1830s, a log cabin was built on the farm.

Jonathan Q. and Mary Atkins purchased the farm from the Hightowers in 1834, and between 1850 and 1860 modified the two-story cabin, building an I-frame house around it. While they owned the farm, the Atkinses raised livestock, planted crops, operated a steam sawmill and owned a blacksmith shop and stable.

The family’s ownership ceased in 1904 when Rudolph Schroeder purchased the farm. Ownership changed again in 1920 when Mary Johnson – widow of John O. Johnson – purchased the property. Between 1932 and 1934, her oldest son, Emmett, bought the farmstead. Various Johnson family members lived and farmed the on property until 1991, making such improvements over the years as adding a kitchen, putting in natural gas and installing an indoor bathroom (though not until the early 1960s). From 1991 until 2004, tenants leased the farm.

Since Gladstone’s purchase of the farm in 2005, a new roof, porch repair and chimney stabilization have spruced up the house, security lighting and fencing have been added and brush and trees have been cleared. Plans for the farm’s makeover (which would make Ty Pennington envious) are being finalized, but highlights include restoring the house’s interior – possibly with portions of the original cabin visible – and adding parking. Officials hope to restore the property to resemble an early 1900s Missouri working farm."

more

Stay on Top of Local News at the Micro Level

Read the Gladstone Dispatch online at:



http://www.gladstonedispatch.com/

Slow but steady the forecast for real estate

New apartment projects and rebounding area home sales were the highlights of the residential real estate sector in 2012, while industrial parks and spec buildings dominated the commercial real estate sector. 

 Through November, new and existing home sales were up 9 percent from the same period a year ago, according to the South Central Kansas Multiple Listing Service. Residential rentals were on the upswing, leading the area’s biggest real estate sales company, J.P. Weigand & Sons, to create a property management division to capture the upturn in rental homes.

Meanwhile, work continued on projects such as the Lux in downtown Wichita, converting the former KG&E headquarters at First and Market into apartments.

More

RE/MAX R4 Convention in 2013 will celebrate 40 years of RE/MAX! Held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on 25-28 February 2013, next years convention will promise to be the biggest and best yet!

"It was an awesome experience and I'm already planning for the next one in 2013" Lana Mehlhopt, RE/MAX Leaders (Kilbirnie).

Do NOT miss out on your opportunity to network, engage and learn with like minded associates and truly be inspired. We at RE/MAX New Zealand want to celebrate 40 years of RE/MAX success so lets have at least 40 kiwis there to celebrate!

 

Uncle Sam keeps jobs and finances flowing to the KC area

 

More than 60 years after President Harry Truman included Kansas City as one of the original 10 regional headquarters cities for his new General Services Administration, this area continues to owe an important part of its prosperity to the federal employees based here.

The federal government, either directly or through contracts, employs 41,500 people in the metropolitan area with a combined annual payroll of more than $3 billion, making it by far the biggest employer in the region. And for every federal job, there are one to two estimated spinoff private jobs.
Just last week, that same Heartland Region GSA office established by Truman in 1949 announced it was seeking rental space in downtown Kansas City for 1,000 federal employees now at the Bannister Federal Complex. In November, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service said it would be hiring 800 employees over the next 10 months.
.
And next year, the National Nuclear Security Administration is scheduled to begin moving its nuclear weapons parts operation managed by Honeywell at the Bannister facility into a new replacement plant. The massive complex cost $590 million to build and will keep 2,500 well-paid jobs in the area for many years.

Read More

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/10/3958568/no-1-employer-uncle-sam-keeps.html#storylink=cpy

Talk of south JoCo highway loop comes around again

Talk about building a new highway loop through Johnson County is revving up again in response to growing development in the area, The Kansas City Star reports.

A state study of transportation needs includes a look at the idea of a highway loop going southward from Interstate 70 near Tonganoxie to Gardner, then eastward to Missouri. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said he would like to see more serious discussion of the idea.
Similar plans for what was then called the 21st Century Parkway stalled out in the mid 1990s.
Renewed interest is being stirred by continued development in South Johnson County and the BNSF Intermodal Facility being build in Edgerton.

Source

Kansas City voters approve streetcar plan

A pool of 550 Kansas City voters approved tax and property assessments that could make a two-mile streetcar line in Downtown a reality as soon as 2015.
Officials at the Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners released the results of the special mail-in election Wednesday afternoon.

Voters granted the Kansas City Downtown Streetcar Transportation Development District the authority to levy a 25-year, 1-cent sales tax on all retail sales made in the district, as well as a series of property reassessments in a special tax district composed of the River Market, Downtown and the Crossroads Arts District to finance the two-mile Main Street streetcar line

Read More

News Summary: German real estate booms

BUYING BOOM: Home prices in Germany's largest cities are booming. Building permits and home ownership rates are climbing fast. And the percentage of foreigners snapping up second homes in Germany is on the rise.

CRISIS FALLOUT: The real estate fervor is a consequence of the European debt crisis. Low interest rates have pushed down homebuyers' costs and inflation fears have driven many to real estate as a safe haven for their savings.

NO BUBBLE: Experts downplay the chances of a real-estate bubble like those seen in the U.S., Ireland or Spain. Borrowing in Germany is more heavily regulated.

Source: KansasCity.com

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/13/3964561/news-summary-german-real-estate.html#storylink=cpy

Google’s 10 most popular KC restaurant searches

Minsky’s Pizza and barbecue places were among the area restaurants “trending” this year.

This year, Google added the 10 most searched restaurants in Kansas City to its 12th annual Year-End Zeitgeist list.

The most searched: Minsky’s Pizza followed by Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue, Stroud’s, 801 Chophouse, Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque, Michael Smith, Gates Bar-B-Q, Plaza III The Steakhouse, Hereford House and Bluestem.

Source: KansasCity.com

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/13/3964620/googles-10-most-popular-kc-restaurant.html#storylink=cpy

Interstate 49 opens road to opportunity for trade, development in KC area

At a Dec. 12 ceremony, transportation officials celebrated the opening of a new stretch of Interstate 49.

For those along its path, I-49 is far more than a road between Kansas City and the Joplin area. They say the newly christened interstate will be a driver of commercial development and trade that enhances Kansas City’s historic role as a transportation hub.

The Missouri stretch of I-49 joins another portion in Louisiana. Once Arkansas fills the gap, drivers will be able to go from New Orleans to Kansas City, then catch Interstate 29 to Winnipeg, Canada.