OFFICIAL - Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Issues concerning Downtown as described by the Downtown Council. River to 31st Street, I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins.
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DColeKC
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by DColeKC »

flyingember wrote: Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:30 am
grovester wrote: Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:12 am Yes, that is really taking it to a new level.
Are we elevating the conversation?
Taking the criticism to new heights!
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grovester
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by grovester »

Thanks, I needed a lift this morning.
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by herrfrank »

One Kansas City Place has 18 tower elevators in three banks of six plus one freight elevator -- Bank One serves 1-17; Bank Two serves 1, 2, and 18-31; Bank Three serves 1, 2, and 32-43. The two-storey lobby (Baltimore Street and parking access from 2, Main Street and retail access from 1) is also connected by a pair of escalators. There are three parking elevators plus one staircase that service six subterranean floors, the 2d floor parking lobby, plus four smaller, upstairs parking levels (overlooking the Midland and the loading dock). The oversized freight elevator has approx. 50 buttons, for every floor, from S-6 to the top. It gets crazy busy at times.

Even with OneKC only about 65% occupied, the waits can be annoying. Lots of people use the stairs (there are two fireproof, double-landing stairwells) if travelling less than four floors.

I cannot imagine a building like the proposal with only two elevators. Hugely under-engineered.
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by normalthings »

herrfrank wrote: Tue Dec 17, 2019 5:28 pm One Kansas City Place has 18 tower elevators in three banks of six plus one freight elevator -- Bank One serves 1-17; Bank Two serves 1, 2, and 18-31; Bank Three serves 1, 2, and 32-43. The two-storey lobby (Baltimore Street and parking access from 2, Main Street and retail access from 1) is also connected by a pair of escalators. There are three parking elevators plus one staircase that service six subterranean floors, the 2d floor parking lobby, plus four smaller, upstairs parking levels (overlooking the Midland and the loading dock). The oversized freight elevator has approx. 50 buttons, for every floor, from S-6 to the top. It gets crazy busy at times.

Even with OneKC only about 65% occupied, the waits can be annoying. Lots of people use the stairs (there are two fireproof, double-landing stairwells) if travelling less than four floors.

I cannot imagine a building like the proposal with only two elevators. Hugely under-engineered.
1. Is One KC Place really that empty? I had thought that it was 80-90%+ full. I know that it was around 60% occupied before Gaw Capital purchased it in 2014 and landed a number of tenants such as SwissRe, Orizon, GSA, APWA, Hays, etc.

Edit: One KC Place was removed from the owner's official leasing agent's website so it appears to me that it's full.

2. Could it be possible that newer elevator technology(double-decker, high speed, etc) allows one to get by with fewer elevators?
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by KC_JAYHAWK »

1KCP is full, I work there. There might be 5% unoccupied on sporadic floors.
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by flyingember »

normalthings wrote: Tue Dec 17, 2019 6:02 pm

2. Could it be possible that newer elevator technology(double-decker, high speed, etc) allows one to get by with fewer elevators?
Those panels where you tell it your floor you want to go to and it tells you where to get on can help. It doesn't matter how fast it is if it needs to stop every other floor.

Not sure double decker would help because it would slow down movement because if the lower level needs out on 1 and the upper level needs out on 1, everyone in the upper level waits. Maybe if combined with the last item so a single cab is serving every other floor
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by herrfrank »

KC_JAYHAWK wrote: Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:04 pm 1KCP is full, I work there. There might be 5% unoccupied on sporadic floors.
The leasing may be 95%, but what I meant was how under-populated the building may be -- one would expect 4000 people to work in a building of this size, but I'd wager we are closer to 2500.

More examples -- 15 is half leased, 17 is basically empty (those are both "swing" space floors, which my company occasionally uses) -- I thought some of the floors in the 30s were unleased, and I also thought BofA was down to only three floors in the low-rise section (floors 3-17).

The mid-rise section, floors 18-31 -- all floors are active, but the offices on 22, 23, and 24 seem to have only a smattering of peeps in them. Compare to 25 (E & Y) or 26 (one of our IT floors) with more than 100 people each.
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by kboish »

So if the city ends up owning this property and leasing it back to W&R, does that mean they do not pay into the TDD?
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by DColeKC »

Anyone else see the article today where a former W&R executive wrote a letter to members of city council bashing W&R?
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by moderne »

Whats going to happen to the little dog poo park? Who owns it currently? I cannot imagine it remaining open during construction.
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by Bbc333 »

moderne wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:54 am Whats going to happen to the little dog poo park? Who owns it currently? I cannot imagine it remaining open during construction.
The power and light apartment building owns that property. I am a resident at pnl and at least as of now haven’t heard anything about it closing....
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by normalthings »

DColeKC wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:08 am Anyone else see the article today where a former W&R executive wrote a letter to members of city council bashing W&R?
Link please?
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

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normalthings wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 12:16 pm
DColeKC wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:08 am Anyone else see the article today where a former W&R executive wrote a letter to members of city council bashing W&R?
Link please?
I can't get past the Stars paywall, but the article headline is, "Former Waddell and Reed exec warns Kansas City against incentives to move firm downtown".
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by kenrbnj »

I read it. It's difficult to determine whether it's "sour grapes" or whether there is a legitimate concern.

Corporate credit ratings agencies exist to mitigate against such risks. It's not our job to perform an actuarial assessment for Kansas City. ..However, one conversant in the corporate debt market should have made an assessment months ago.

I'd be dumbfounded if a surprise is found at this stage in the game.

The essence of the article is delineated as follows:

Two days before the vote, however, some council members received an email from a former executive of the company, who warned of its financial fitness.

“Frankly, I am appalled that Waddell & Reed is attempting to secure tax incentives from Kansas City for the purposes of moving their headquarters from Overland Park,” said Rick Perry, a former senior vice president. “I would caution the KC Council and others to be very careful in entering into ANY long-term financial arrangement with Waddell & Reed. The company may have been something in the past that it is NOT now.”
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normalthings
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

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kenrbnj wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 1:04 pm I read it. It's difficult to determine whether it's "sour grapes" or whether there is a legitimate concern.

Corporate credit ratings agencies exist to mitigate against such risks. It's not our job to perform an actuarial assessment for Kansas City. ..However, one conversant in the corporate debt market should have made an assessment months ago.

I'd be dumbfounded if a surprise is found at this stage in the game.

The essence of the article is delineated as follows:

Two days before the vote, however, some council members received an email from a former executive of the company, who warned of its financial fitness.

“Frankly, I am appalled that Waddell & Reed is attempting to secure tax incentives from Kansas City for the purposes of moving their headquarters from Overland Park,” said Rick Perry, a former senior vice president. “I would caution the KC Council and others to be very careful in entering into ANY long-term financial arrangement with Waddell & Reed. The company may have been something in the past that it is NOT now.”
I had thought that it was well established that WR isn’t always on the best ground.
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by beautyfromashes »

Hearing this is on thin ice at City Hall. “It’s 50-50 at this point.”
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by moderne »

What I got from the Star article is that they are employing fewer, ,managing less assets, but are still making fistfulls of money.
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by normalthings »

moderne wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 3:54 pm What I got from the Star article is that they are employing fewer, ,managing less assets, but are still making fistfulls of money.
Image

https://www.financial-planning.com/news ... ses-in-q3

Sounds like WR is in a transitional period but is starting to turn the business around. The Wall Street Journal reports that WR tripled in size from 2009-2013. In the mid-2010s, it appears that some investors started leaving amid changes in fund leadership. It looks like Eric “Rick” Perry seperated in 2018.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/outflows-h ... 433968268
https://www.marketwatch.com/press-relea ... 018-04-12
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by beautyfromashes »

Easy to grow assets when the stock market is up 100% in the last five years.
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Re: Waddell & Reed - 14th & Baltimore

Post by kboish »

approved
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