My introduction to the Kansas City commercial real estate market came in 2010 as the industry found itself battered by the tailwinds of the Great Recession. A longtime reporter assigned to a new beat, I covered a lot of long-term visions and master plans, but deal-making was pretty dry; even the most prolific developers and brokers were drumming their fingers on tabletops, trying to stay positive while waiting out the downturn. Looking back, it was pretty bleak. Only the strongest survived. And if you're reading this now, chances are pretty good you are one of them.
Seven years later, it's a whole new game. Relentless demand for distribution and e-commerce related space is driving activity in the industrial sector, with Kansas City forecast to complete 18 million square feet of speculative industrial space in 2016-17. That means there's a whole lot of leases to be signed, blueprints to be drawn up and concrete to be poured.
Here at MetroWireMedia, we're keeping tabs on all that big-box activity and other Kansas City CRE trends, including growth in medical services real estate, co-working incubator spaces, and redevelopment/adaptive re-use in the urban core and inner ring suburbs.
In the coming weeks, Advertising Director Lisa Shackelford will roll out our 2017 events calendar, and our editorial team will add some fun new features to this newsletter. As always, we look forward to sharing news about dealmakers and development projects all over the Kansas City region.
We don't want to miss a thing, so if you're on the move, have an event on the books or a new or updated space you want to share with us, let us know about it at krista@metrowiremedia.com or lisa@metrowiremedia.com. Until then, hold onto your hardhats. Things are moving fast out there!