"Wired" Bryant Bldg. to Receive Upgrades

[FangKC]

REAL ESTATE:
COMMERCIAL

September 5, 2003
The Business Journal of Kansas City

Bryant Building owner sees fiber as calling card

Jim Davis
Staff Writer

The Bryant Building has a new owner that wants to capitalize on the property's fiber-optic capabilities to boost occupancy.

Scott Gile, a principal with the Wisconsin-based limited liability corporation that bought the building at 1102 Grand Blvd., said he expects to upgrade elevators, add power and improve energy efficiency. No budget has been set, said Gile, whose group bought the building July 29.

Gile said he wants to retain the telecommunications companies that lease about 60 percent of the building's occupied space.

"It has everything that a high-tech firm needs," he said. "Unless technology drastically changes, you still need the fiber base."

Occupancy is 63 percent, 20 percentage points less than the downtown average for Class B office buildings as calculated by Grubb & Ellis/The Winbury Group.

Debora Field, a broker at Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, said most telecom companies sign long-term leases and make large technology investments. They usually don't need many people to operate equipment, so the Bryant Building's lack of on-site parking isn't a big problem.

Terms of the sale weren't disclosed, but a source familiar with the deal set its price at $2 million. That would be more than twice what the previous owner, Pacifica Bryant LP, paid eight years ago.

Jim Loveland and Chuck Connealy of Waterford Property Co. LLC represented California-based Pacifica Bryant in the sale.

Waterford probably will be the leasing agent. Gile's group handles its property management. Gile said his group will improve the building's net operating income and then sell, probably within five years.

Gile and his partner, Harold Jones, bought their first area property, a Grandview apartment complex, 10 years ago. At one time, they owned about 1,200 apartment units along Armour Boulevard in Midtown. The Bryant Building is their first commercial holding in Kansas City.

R. Lee Harris, president of NAI Cohen-Esrey Real Estate Services Inc., said Gile's strategy makes sense. Tenants will pay a premium for access to the Bryant Building's technology, Harris said. Cohen-Esrey leased the building in the late 1990s.

Longer term, Harris said, he sees the Bryant Building as a prime candidate for a residential conversion. Its art deco architecture and small floor plates would make this use work, he said.

[KC_JAYHAWK]

Which is the Bryan building?

[FangKC]

The Bryant Building is that old art deco tower on the SW corner of 11th and Grand. It's directly (west) across the street from the Professional Building, and (south) of UMB's new building. There is a computer store/internet access place on the ground floor on that corner.

[KCPowercat]

Jayhawk...don't forget this website has a database of buildings you can look up anything tall.

[KC_JAYHAWK]

Oh yeah, I always forget that...thanks.