HOK's healthy focus five years post merger

It's been five years since 360 joined HOK in an effort to expand and diversify their markets and talented staff.

"There was a lot of interest in expanding our presence in Kansas City into new markets that HOK already had an established presence in including healthcare, aviation, science and technology and justice," said Chris DeVolder, managing partner with HOK who came from 360 with the acquisition.

Since the acquisition, the healthcare market has proved to be an opportunity for growth and expansion for the firm’s Kansas City office. Both nationally and locally, there's a huge emphasis on bringing in the wellness side - meditation, yoga - into healthcare facilities to treat the well, not just the sick.

"The healthcare market has really grown here because of strategic leadership, a significant amount of healthcare construction in the region and synergies with so many other markets. We continue to find natural synergies between our markets, from workplace to sports projects, there is a natural synergy, said DeVolder.

In addition to healthcare-specific spaces, HOK is seeing healthcare influence in almost every one of their markets.

With 24 offices worldwide, including 15 in the U.S., HOK feels fortunate to have so many resources to tap into.

“The great thing about HOK is because we have an extensive network of healthcare designers, planners and consultants, coupled with industry leaders in every one of our other markets, we can create the most innovative projects by learning from what others in the firm are doing and collaborating with other market sector leaders to deliver the best solutions for our clients,” said Erin Nybo, healthcare practice leader with HOK.

One example of that crossover taking place is within their Sports + Recreation + Entertainment sector. By working closely with healthcare leaders within the firm, they are delivering some of the most advanced spaces for high-performance training and recovery.

The new Hybl Center at University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, for example, brings together academics, clinical practice and training under one roof to facilitate scientific discovery between students, professors, researchers, clinicians, student-athletes and first responders.

"The great news is we are seeing these integrated, advanced approaches to healthcare happening not just on the coasts – they are happening right here," Nybo said.

HOK’s Kansas City office also taps into their internal healthcare group made up of 150 experts – including current and former practitioners, architects, interior designers and their chief medical officer, all with world-leading expertise on topics like pediatrics, oncology, infection control, hospital design, medical office buildings and outpatient care etc., to provide additional and timely insight.

The HOK healthcare consulting group, a small sub-section of the broader practice, uses patient and physician data with regional market data to build robust master plans, for example.

“We have a really high track record of master plans being implemented because of this unique, data-driven approach to design," Nybo said.

The HOK Kansas City and St. Louis offices collaborate often on projects as well. The St. Louis team is leading the design and collaborating with team members in Kansas City for construction administration on the new UMKC Engineering Building.

Healthcare projects in Kansas City include a Stormont-Vail Medical Office Building with a medical spa and The Children’s Place renovation and a partnership project with Truman Medical Center and the YMCA that includes 12 exam rooms with a holistic approach to health and wellness.

Current non-healthcare projects in Kansas City include Lightwell, American Century Investments, Waddell & Reed and Kiewit.

Current HOK projects in St. Louis include a new MLS Soccer Stadium, continued projects within the Cortex Innovation Community and Boeing NeXt’s space.

Over the next five years HOK sees the healthcare market continuing to evolve and grow and plans to enter and grow their presence in the Science + Technology market, which includes higher education buildings and labs.

"We're looking forward to designing with health and wellness in mind on all projects, continuing to work with local healthcare clients and expanding into emerging markets where we can best serve our clients," Nybo said.

They also plan to expand their existing sustainability studio as one of the firm’s three hubs globally for sustainable design. 

"We are going to continue our focus on creating healthy buildings for healthy bodies,'" DeVoder said.

BacklotCars shifts downtown to KC's Lightwell Building

BacklotCars, a wholesale auto inventory service provider currently located in the Crossroads, will be moving to the the newly rebranded Lightwell Building at 12th and Main in August.

With the recent signing of the 20,000 SF full-floor lease agreement, Somera Road and their partner AREA Real Estate Advisors, added the second major tenant following a landmark lease agreement with WeWork.

Lightwell currently boasts 180,000 SF of contiguous availability, the largest existing block of space in downtown Kansas City.

“When we saw the vision Somera Road and AREA Real Estate Advisors had for the Lightwell project, we knew it was something we had to be a part of,” said Josh Parsons, BacklotCars founder/ COO.

“The location, design and amenities of the project are exactly what is needed to attract the top tech talent to Kansas City. We are very excited to be moving into the new Lightwell Building and feel that it will be a great place for our ever-growing team to call home,” Parsons said.

BacklotCars is a significant disrupter of the wholesale automotive space, and recently closed a $25 million Series B funding round. The company seeks to ease pain points for automotive dealers though building one wholesale platform for all dealers to transact efficiently.

“BacklotCars is exactly the type of forward-thinking technology company that understands what we’re creating at the Lightwell. They’re a major contributor to Kansas City’s growing technology ecosystem and we’re excited to provide them with a home that’ll enable their next phase of growth.” said Basel Bataineh, Somera Road vice president.

“With its fantastic bones and premier location, we believed that Lightwell would attract the fastest-growing segments of employment including tech, marketing, and creative-driven companies. BacklotCars is certainly a great example of what we thought would happen,” said Tim Schaffer, AREA Real Estate Advisors president.

HOK and JE Dunn joined AREA and Somera Road on the renovation.