Tag Archive for: subtropolis

The Animal Health Corridor is going underground.

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animal health space for lease

The Animal Health Corridor is going underground.
Ryan Tompkins – Manager of Sales & Leasing

When choosing a location for warehouse, distribution and R & D facilities, animal health companies would be wise to check out SubTropolis, The World’s Largest Underground Business Complex™. SubTropolis is located in the heart of Kansas City, which is a centerpiece within the Animal Health Corridor, home to the world’s largest concentration of animal health companies.

With more than 6M square feet of contiguous underground space available and the potential to develop an additional 8M square feet, SubTropolis offers growing animal health companies the ability to scale quickly and efficiently. Without weather delays and lengthy permit approvals, climate controlled space can be built out on a much faster timeline than traditional above-ground properties.  Ceva Animal Health is the most recent company to expand within SubTropolis.

In 2016, the veterinary pharmaceutical company brought its total underground warehouse and distribution footprint to 90,000 square feet. Ceva initially leased 36,000 square feet in SubTropolis for warehouse and distribution space in 2014 as part of a consolidation effort to bring Ceva in closer proximity to its North American headquarters in Lenexa, KS.  Ceva CEO Craig Wallace has praised SubTropolis’ scalability, as well as consistent environmental conditions, as reasons for their expansion.  SubTropolis provides optimal storage conditions for the most stringent specifications.  Consistent temperature and humidity levels that are within USP defined “Controlled Room Temperature” ranges without the heavy upfront HVAC capital expenditures.  All of this results in significant occupancy and operational savings for Ceva.

A recent analysis of a temperature controlled 150,000 square foot distribution facility, for an animal health/bioscience company, indicated a savings of $125,500 on utilities by locating operations in SubTropolis.

In this on-demand world, animal health companies seeking warehouse and distribution efficiency will appreciate SubTropolis’ central location, not to mention its security measures.  With quick and reliable access to I-435, I-70, I-35 and I-29, companies within SubTropolis enjoy two-day delivery to 90% of the United States.

In addition, as Animal health companies require significant security protection, SubTropolis, with on-site 24/7 armed security, access control to the complex and on-site security system monitoring, offers a GSA Level III Secured Facility to meet the most stringent security requirements.

A perfect location for unmatched expansion flexibility, controlled environment and rock solid security — you can see why The Animal Health Corridor is heading to SubTropolis.

Ryan Tompkins is manager of sales and leasing for Hunt Midwest. Reach Ryan at rtompkins@huntmidwest.com.

Auto, e-commerce demand fuel Hunt Midwest Business Center expansion

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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 is keeping the line moving in Kansas City.

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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.

Planning the Children’s TLC Groundhog Run never gets old — even after 30 years

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Groundhog Run - 5k Start

Planning the Children’s TLC Groundhog Run never gets old — even after 30 years
Connie Kamps – Director of Real Estate Operations

You might think planning a 10K run on the same weekend in the same location for more than 30 years would get monotonous—maybe even feel a little like “Groundhog Day.” But the truth is, every year I’ve been involved with the Groundhog Run since 1985 has offered a new challenge, a new insight or an opportunity to meet ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

And this year’s Groundhog Run is no exception, as an octogenarian named Donald Hughes will arrive laced up and ready to run, as he has every race weekend for 33 years straight. But this is no ordinary weekend for Mr. Hughes. It’s his birthday weekend, and for more than three decades he has made it a priority to participate in the Groundhog Run on his birthday. The run benefits the Children’s Therapeutic Learning Center in Kansas City, and by sharing his birthday with this effort, Mr. Hughes has helped raised $4.5 million for children with special needs and their families.

Last year was a thrill as well, as 27-year-old Children’s TLC alum McClain Johnson took part in the race. In the months leading up to the run, McClain, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age, walked a total of 1,000 miles and culminated his journey at the Groundhog Run. His tremendous accomplishment prompted his employer, Cosentino’s Price Chopper, to donate $1,000 to Children’s TLC in McClain’s honor.

Starting with Hunt Midwest donating SubTropolis and thousands of employee hours to host to the Groundhog Run, the corporate community in Kansas City year after year displays a remarkable and heartwarming generosity in this effort through race sponsorships and through sponsorships of corporate running teams who participate in the Groundhog Run.

Someone once asked me how many hours I have donated to the Groundhog Run since becoming involved back in 1985. The answer is “too many to count.” But I can assure you that seeing thousands of runners united in the spirit of giving back to their communities and then seeing the money raised put to work to help the lives of the kids and families at Children’s TLC makes every single hour worthwhile.

The 2016 Children’s TLC Groundhog Run will be held on Sunday, January 24th at Hunt Midwest SubTropolis.

Hunt Midwest educates KC brokers, links two development worlds

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industrial broker open house

Hunt Midwest educates KC brokers, links two development worlds
Autumn MorningSky – MetroWire Media

For the last five years, it’s been impossible to discuss Kansas City’s development boom without mention of the powerhouse that is Hunt Midwest. The sister company of the Kansas City Chiefs has saturated local real estate news and has even graced a number of major national news outlets this year – from NPR to CNN – who are fascinated with the flourishing underground business world the company has created. Even outside of SubTropolis, Hunt Midwest has grown other segments of its business by leaps and bounds, including its surface industrial park, data center, senior housing projects and more.

But it’s been five years since the company brought in the local brokerage to educate them on the range of Hunt Midwest’s offerings. That changed last week when the company brought in more than 50 brokers and numerous officials from various economic development groups around Kansas City, including a slew of new faces Hunt Midwest CEO Ora Reynolds wanted to educate and get to know.

“Five years ago, we didn’t do as much vertical construction as we do now. We were known as someone who would sell a piece of ground that someone could build on, but now our focus is that we can provide all the options: We can sell you ground, we can sell you ground and build your facility for you, or we can do a build-to-suit and lease it for you. You’ve got a lot of different options to cover the full spectrum of users out there,” Reynolds said. “We also wanted them to understand the strategic niches we’re going after – automotive upfitters and suppliers, e-commerce, fulfillment companies, and government users and tech users – and talk about our strategy, which is the synergy between the underground and the surface.”

The Hidden Metropolis Beneath Kansas City

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SubTropolis - Great Big Story

The Hidden Metropolis Beneath Kansas City
Great Big Story

One-hundred-fifty feet below Kansas City, in a 270-million-year-old limestone deposit, more than 1600 people work in the world’s largest business labyrinth. They basically work in the Batcave, and it’s probably more interesting than your office. As seen on CNN — Check out the video essay here.

Hunt Midwest is a full-service real estate development company with a focus on industrial, commercial, retail, mission critical, multifamily, senior living and residential real estate. The Hunt Midwest portfolio is anchored by SubTropolis, the world’s largest underground business complex.

Located in the heart of the Midwest, this Kansas City, Missouri-based company is developer of over 6,200 acres of commercial, retail, industrial and residential property, and owner/developer of SubTropolis, the world’s largest underground business complex.

SubTropolis is a subterranean, 1,150-acre industrial park in Kansas City, Missouri, with over 6 million square feet of leasable space. The complex is home to more than 55 local, national and international businesses with 1,600 employees. SubTropolis is an ENERGY STAR certified warehouse facility. Hunt Midwest’s headquarters is located within SubTropolis.

Kansas City Will Benefit From the Shift to E-commerce

SubTropolis 475,200 SF facility

Kansas City Will Benefit From the Shift to E-commerce
Dick Ringer – Assistant General Manager, Hunt Midwest

With its central U.S. location, great labor force and affordable lease rates, Kansas City offers an exciting value proposition for e-commerce companies, and the time is right for deal-making in the industrial market.

Online sales currently comprise about 7 percent of all retail sales and are growing at a rate of 15 percent a year. E-commerce is ultimately expected to account for 50 percent of all retail sales. This shift to e-commerce creates an opportunity for brokers and developers in Kansas City’s industrial market as new fulfillment centers open.

As the online sales industry has matured, so has the consumer’s demand for timely and inexpensive delivery. The fact that 85% of the U.S. is accessible via 2-day shipping by truck from Kansas City is a strong selling point for e-commerce companies scouting fulfillment and distribution sites.

It wasn’t too long ago that customers didn’t mind waiting more than a week to receive online orders, and we didn’t even mind paying for shipping. Now we’ve grown accustomed to free shipping and two-day delivery. Of course, the faster that e-commerce companies can deliver products to the doorstep, the more they sell. And retailers probably don’t need to be reminded of the cost benefits of shipping by truck compared to shipping by air.

A significant advantage for Kansas City—especially when it comes to moving goods manufactured overseas–  is its presence as the largest rail hub in the nation in terms of tonnage, which means lower transportation costs. Products that are produced overseas can be transported across the ocean on a ship, taken by rail from ports on the coast to one of the rail intermodal yards in Kansas City (which is far more economical than trucking on long hauls), then the product is taken from the rail yard to an e-commerce fulfillment center where it can be shipped by truck to online buyers as it is ordered.

Since online sales volume directly correlates to the speed of delivery, proximity to hubs like FedEx and/or UPS, along with the availability of late pickups, is invaluable. Another important consideration is the access to fiber, which is plentiful in the metro area. Robust, redundant fiber is essential for e-commerce companies to process orders quickly for delivery.  Troy Brown the EVP of OmniChannel & Marketing for Zumiez who cater to the younger electronic savvy demographic, said that if their customers don’t get a shipping confirmation within half an hour of placing an order, Zumiez may very well get a phone call asking “what’s up?”

Finally, Kansas City’s labor force is among its strongest selling points. E-commerce fulfillment centers tend to have more employees per 1,000 square feet than typical warehousing operations. And because orders rise during peak seasons and times, fulfillment operations need to be located where there is a good temporary workforce available.

Why Ford suppliers are going underground (literally)

Why Ford's suppliers are going underground (literally)

In the shadow of a Ford plant, auto suppliers toil 100 feet down in a former Kansas City limestone mine.
By Jim Motavalli, May 1, 2015

I’ve been to a lot of unusual places in my long career as a journalist, but SubTropolis in Kansas City takes the cake. It’s the world’s largest underground storage facility, 6 million square feet 80 to 150 down in a former limestone mine. The limestone is 270 million years old, but the use of these caves for climate-controlled businesses only dates to 1964.

SubTropolis, owned by the wealthy Hunt family, is like an underground city, with the major benefit in hot-summer, cold-winter Kansas City of being a steady 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. No wonder the place gets a 100 percent Energy Star rating — no heating or air conditioning necessary! The U.S. Post Office stores $6 billion in stamps down here, and LightEdge Solutions maintains a naturally cooled $58 million data center.

I’m down in SubTropolis for Automotive Alley, the newest addition. In 2011, Ford announced a $1.1 billion expansion of its Claycomo assembly plant, which makes the F-150 truck (America’s bestselling vehicle) and the Transit van. SubTropolis borders Ford’s property, so what better location for Ford suppliers?

On the surface here, Ford maintains a 29-acre logistics facility where it stages 1,800 Transits, 80 percent of which get shipped by rail from here. But a lot of them go underground, where three companies, Adrian Steel, Knapheide and Ground Effects, have only recently begun “upfitting” them for customers like Comcast, Duke Energy, Western Pest Control, Geek Squad and Halliburton.

First stop: Canada-based Ground Effects, where plant manager April Adams shows me rows of F-150s that are having bed liners sprayed in (a $475 factory option). Across the way, Transits are getting cargo spray floors, Kicker subwoofers and remote starts. The whole spraying thing gets me concerned about ventilation down here, but President and CEO Ora Reynolds and VP Mike Bell assure me that the place is naturally air conditioned through 17 openings. “We have the EPA down here,” Bell says. “Do you think they’d allow us to have bad air quality?” Go to MNN.com for more…

LEARN MORE: What Is SubTropolis?

VIDEO: Go Inside SubTropolis – NBC Sunday Today Show

Doing business 100 feet underground

Doing business 100 feet underground - CNNMoney.com

Here’s a novel way to slash your business expenses in half: Relocate 100 feet underground.
In the Midwest, many businesses have done just that.
By Parija Kavilanz, May 1, 2015

In states like Missouri, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, there’s a growing number of firms doing business in subterranean spaces that were once mines. Starting in the 1960s, these spaces were rehabilitated for commercial use.

SubTropolis, in Kansas City, Mo., is a well-known example.

The underground business complex was an active limestone mine in the 1940s, owned by real estate firm Hunt Midwest. As mining started to taper off, it left a vast network of empty caves.

“In the 1960s came the ‘a-ha!’ moment,” said Ora Reynolds, president and CEO of Hunt Midwest. “These spaces could be reused.”

Since then, Hunt Midwest has gradually transformed the defunct spaces.

“Six million square feet of it is ready, and we have room to build out another 8 million square feet based on demand,” said Dick Ringer, SubTropolis’ general manager.

Today, 1,600 people to work at one of the 52 businesses that lease space in SubTropolis’ space, including tech and manufacturing firms, consumer products companies and auto firms.

“Ford at one time used to store its Mavericks here,” said Reynolds. And the U.S. Postal Service currently stores $2 billion worth of stamps in SubTropolis.

“The constant temperature and humidity [it’s 68 to 72 degrees year-round] are ideal for storing stamps and other products,” she said.

Other advantages: There’s underground parking. Construction costs are low since there’s already a natural roof in place — all they need to build are walls.

“We’re a ‘green’ workspace since we’re conserving natural resources,” Ringer said. “And by being deep underground, we’re a pretty secure location for businesses.”

Employees enter SubTropolis through one of 19 entrances that accommodate cars and trucks. This also facilitates cross-ventillation of natural air, although tenants can also add air conditioning and dehumidifiers. Go to CNNMoney.com for more…

As seen in Bloomberg Businessweek: Welcome to SubTropolis

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As seen in Bloomberg: Welcome to SubTropolis

Welcome to SubTropolis: The Massive Business Complex Buried Under Kansas City
More than 1,000 people spend their workdays in SubTropolis, an industrial park housed in an excavated mine the size of 140 football fields
By Patrick Clark, February 4, 2015 

About 10 percent of Kansas City’s commercial real estate is underground, says Ora Reynolds, president of SubTropolis landlord Hunt Midwest. Landlords have made a cottage industry out of underground industrial space, thanks to rock formations near the Missouri River that allow trucks to drive into the old mines instead of tenants needing to use elevators to get things in and out.

The underground industrial park known as SubTroplis opened for business in 1964 in an excavated mine below Kansas City, Mo., attracting tenants with the lure of lower energy costs and cheap rents. The walls, carved out of 270-million-year-old limestone deposits, help keep humidity low and temperatures at a constant 68 degrees, eliminating the need for air conditioning or heating. Tenants have reported saving as much as 70 percent on their energy bills, says Ora Reynolds, president of SubTropolis landlord Hunt Midwest. Rents run about $2.25 per square foot, about half the going rate on the surface. “It’s also a question of sustainability,” says Joe Paris, vice president at Paris Brothers, a specialty foods packager that employs about 200 workers underground. In addition to Paris Brothers, 51 tenants have rented nearly 6 million square feet of space. Others include LightEdge Solutions, a cloud computing company that uses the mild climate to help cool servers, and an underground archive that contains the original film reels to Gone with the Wind and Wizard of Oz.  Go to Bloomberg.com for more…