Tag Archive for: knapheide

Ora Reynolds and Mike Bell in front of HMBC Logisitcs I

Auto, e-commerce demand fuel Hunt Midwest Business Center expansion
Rob Roberts – Kansas City Business Journal

By the time Hunt Midwest completes HMBC Logistics I next month, the new 200,000-square-foot Class A industrial building in the Hunt Midwest Business Center may well be leased up, said Ora Reynolds, the Kansas City-based development firm’s CEO.

Hunt Midwest is currently in the final stages of negotiations with three tenants that would fill the building, which was started last year on a speculative basis, meaning before any tenants were signed.

Once that happens, Reynolds said, Hunt Midwest will start on one of the other two 200,000-square-foot specs planned for adjacent sites in the surface business park located near Parvin Road and Interstate 435 in Clay County — just a mile and a half away from the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant and right above the world’s largest underground business park, Hunt Midwest’s SubTropolis.

According to Reynolds, the trio of 200,000-square-feet buildings is designed to fill a niche in the market for tenants needing 40,000 to 50,000 square feet of Class A industrial space with features such as 32-foot clear height, multiple dock doors (HMBC Logistics I’s current 20 doors can be tripled to meet tenant demand) and 60-foot deep bays that allow indoor staging for 53-foot trailers. Read more…

Ford PSW-Approved industrial space

Ford is keeping the line moving in Kansas City.
Ryan Tompkins – Manager of Sales & Leasing

When people think about Kansas City, chances are they think about barbecue, jazz, the Kansas City Chiefs and of course, our World Series-winning Royals.

What they may not realize is that along Kansas City’s I-35 Northland corridor, Ford has managed to cover all the bases by putting a winning team together to support production and customization of its two Kansas City-made vehicles, the top-selling Ford F-150 and the Ford Transit, the top-selling commercial van.

It all begins at Ford’s massive Claycomo Assembly Plant and it ends just a few miles south at Hunt Midwest’s Automotive Alley, a sprawling above- and below-ground commercial business park that is home to Ford’s 29-acre North American Vehicle Logistics Outbound Shipping facility, or NAVLOS.

After Ford F-150s and Transit commercial vans roll off the assembly line at Claycomo, they’re transported a couple of miles to the NAVLOS facility in Automotive Alley for staging. The vehicles are then transferred to one of 10 Ford approved upfitters located within Automotive Alley, which includes both the Hunt Midwest Business Center (HMBC) and SubTropolis, the world’s largest underground business complex.

Since 2012, Automotive Alley has seen tremendous growth in its fleet of upfitters, with companies like Adrian Steel, CASECO, Ground Effects, Knapheide, Sortimo and Leggett & Platt adding customizable cargo management solutions. Other auto industry related companies within Automotive Alley include distributors AER Manufacturing, Clore Automotive, Grupo Antolin and Midway Ford, as well as 3PL provider XPO Logistics. And more upfitters, suppliers and related companies are looking at Automotive Alley every day.

With the Kansas City Claycomo plant helping lead the way for Ford’s best year ever, Hunt Midwest is developing speculative industrial space, both below (SubTropolis) and above (HMBC) ground, to accommodate future growth companies looking for a centrally located, affordable place to do business near Ford’s largest assembly plant.

At Hunt Midwest, we’re proud to be a part of Ford’s winning Kansas City team, and we look forward to adding more players in 2016 and beyond.

Ryan Tompkins is manager of sales and leasing for Hunt Midwest. In March he will represent Hunt Midwest and Automotive Alley at the NTEA Work Truck Show. Reach Ryan at rtompkins@huntmidwest.com.