Inside Columbia's CEO Summer 2013

intimiDatinG inteRn Quarterback brad smith makes a Play For a second Job Page 16

Rooms foR Rent Can Columbia support This Influx of student Housing?

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summer 2013 www.ColumbiaCeO.com

CONtENts

Inside Columbia’s CEO • www.ColumbiaCeo.com • Volume 4, Issue 4

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Opening Bell: The Buzz On Como Biz

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up & Coming: The Ladder report

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regional roundup

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Former mizzou QB Brad smith makes A Fashion statement

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Columbia’s Airline service Now At 1 Carrier, 2 Cities

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Local retailers Are Winning On The Web

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A Conversation With AT&T missouri President John sondag

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CeO roundtable: downtown stakeholders speak Out

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A Construction Boom Brings A Burst Of Luxury student Housing To Como

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Think Tank: Coil Construction Branches Out With ‘smart room’ Technology

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The 2013 CeO sentiment survey

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Turn up The Heat With grilling Accessories

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Networking

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Publisher’s Note

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Closing Quotes

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iNsidE COlumBia’s CEO staff Publisher Fred Parry fred@insidecolumbia.net

meeT Our edITOrIAL AdvIsOrY BOArd

associate Publisher Melody Parry melody@insidecolumbia.net editor-in-Chief Sandy Selby sandy@insidecolumbia.net Copy editor Kathy Casteel kathy@insidecolumbia.net editorial assistant Morgan McCarty morgan@insidecolumbia.net

RandY CoIl President, Coil Construction

Tom aTKIns President, Tom Atkins Investments

GaRY dReWInG President, Joe Machens Dealerships

Joan Gabel Dean, Trulaske College of Business, University of Missouri

Contributing Writer Anita Neal Harrison Photo editor L.G. Patterson lg@insidecolumbia.net Creative director Carolyn Preul cpreul@insidecolumbia.net Graphic designer Kate Moore kate@insidecolumbia.net

bob GeRdInG President, Gerding, Korte & Chitwood CPAs

Paul land Principal/Owner, Plaza Commercial Realty

dIanne lYnCH President, Stephens College

GeoRGe PFenenGeR CEO, Socket

director of marketing Kevin Magee kevin@insidecolumbia.net marketing Representatives Crystal Midkiff crystal@insidecolumbia.net Jesse Francisco jesse@insidecolumbia.net

bob PuGH CEO, MBS Textbook Exchange

GReG sTeInHoFF President of Strategic Operations, Veterans United Home Loans

JeRRY TaYloR President & CEO, MFA Oil Co.

TIm WolFe President, University of Missouri System

Inside Columbia’s CEO magazine 47 E. Broadway • Columbia, MO 65203 • Office: 573-442-1430 • Web: www.ColumbiaCEO.com Inside Columbia’s CEO is published quarterly by OutFront Communications LLC, 47 E. Broadway, Columbia, Mo. 65203, 573-442-1430. Copyright OutFront Communications, 2013. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of any editorial or graphic content without the express written permission of the publisher is prohibited.

Postage paid at Columbia, Mo. The annual subscription rate is $19.95 for four issues.

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Kalie Clennin kalie@insidecolumbia.net audience development specialist Ren Bishop ren@insidecolumbia.net

Please Recycle This Magazine.

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marketing assistants Jessica Card jessica@insidecolumbia.net

director of Customer Retention Gerri Shelton gerri@insidecolumbia.net office manager Kent Hudelson kent@insidecolumbia.net assistant Finance manager Brenda Brooks brenda@insidecolumbia.net distribution manager John Lapsley

OPENING BELL

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recent study has taken a stand about the dangers of sitting. The October 2012 British Journal of Sports Medicine claims that for every hour a person spends sitting in front of their television or computer, they are cutting about 22 minutes from their life span. By contrast, it’s estimated that smokers shorten their lives by about 11 minutes per cigarette.

Some University of Missouri nutrition and exercise specialists are making strides to change their workday behavior and set a good example for others. They’re working at treadmill desks.

According to Steve Ball, an associate professor of nutrition and exercise physiology, the desks, which let workers walk at 1 to 2 miles per hour, benefit employees with weight loss, improved posture, reduced back stress, improved focus, reduced mental stress and anxiety, and enhanced job satisfaction.

Ball and other faculty in MU’s College of Human Environmental Sciences plan to conduct research on the treadmill desks’ long-term health effects.

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Photo provided by MU Extension

walk while you work

the buzz on como biz

Steve Ball, MU Extension state fitness specialist, works at his treadmill desk.

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OPENING BELL

the buzz on como biz

Columbia Gets Lucky’s

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housands of cars pass through the busy intersection of Broadway and Providence Road every day and for nearly 10 years, the empty Osco Drug building has dominated the view. But that corner will come back to life soon with the arrival of Lucky’s Farmers Market, a Boulder, Colo.based grocer.

Lucky’s President Bo Sharon says the 30,000-square-foot store will fill the former Osco Drug space with an expansive produce section, a selection of fresh meats and dairy items, plentiful grocery items, and a vitamin and supplement department.

The Columbia store is part of a Midwestern expansion for the company.

According to Sharon, Lucky’s selected

Columbia because “It’s a cool town. It feels like a like-minded city: good people, common values, community seems important. When we looked at the real estate, we asked, ‘Where do we want to spend time with our families?’ More importantly, in our perspective, Columbia was underserved for what we do.”

Sharon says Lucky’s Farmer’s Market wants to make a good first impression on Columbia. “We invest in our community,” he says. “We’ve budgeted to donate dollars back from Day 1, going to local schools and local charities. We’re friendly folks and hope to make Lucky’s a hub of the community.”

Sharon expects the Columbia store to open this fall and to employ about 100 people.

“We’re friendly folks and hope to make Lucky’s a hub of the community.” ­— Bo Sharon

erbert & gerbert announces columbia plans Wisconsin-based sandwich chain Erbert & Gerbert’s Sandwich Shop plans to add two Columbia locations by the end of 2014, and the company says it will add 25 Missouri locations over the next year.

The chain is noted for unique flavor combos, such as cranberry wasabi chicken. “We aren’t your grandmother’s sandwich chain,” says Chuck Schwalbe, director of marketing for Erbert & Gerbert’s. “You can’t find these sandwiches in any other sub shop.”

Marine Sgt. Ben Tomlinson and his family pose after a concert benefiting the building of his “smart home.”

veterans united announces annual grant Veterans United Foundation, the charitable arm of Veterans United Home Loans, recently announced the establishment of the Veterans United Home for a Hero grant. The annual $200,000 grant will be awarded to a severely injured veteran to help pay for a portion of a mortgage-free home specially built to meet his or her needs.

Marine Sgt. Ben Tomlinson is the inaugural recipient of the grant, announced at a concert in his honor in Jacksonville, Ala., on May 19. The grant will help pay for a portion of Tomlinson’s new “smart home” being built by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the Gary Sinise Foundation. Tomlinson has been paralyzed from the chest down since he was shot through the back of the neck in Afghanistan in 2010.

Share your business news with Inside Columbia’s CEO. Email the editor at sandy@insidecolumbia.net.

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OPENiNG BEll

up & coming

thE laddEr rEPOrt look Who’s moving up In Columbia

From left to right, Naomi Starr, Olivia Koselansky and Lacee Floyd display their first-place plaques earned in Entrepreneurship at the Collegiate DECA International Competition in Anaheim, Calif.

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hree William Woods University business students captured first place in Entrepreneurship at the Collegiate DECA International Competition in Anaheim, Calif.

The team of Lacee Floyd of Highlands Ranch, Colo., Olivia Koselansky of Sterling Heights, Mich., and Naomi Starr of Columbia prepared for the international contest by competing in Columbia’s #BOOM Bounce Pitch Competition, sponsored

by Regional Economic Development Inc. in April. The REDI competition, which took place at the University of Missouri’s Trulaske College of Business, featured 18 finalists competing for prize money sponsored by mid-Missouri businesses, investors and entrepreneurs. The WWU students presented their business project, Breathtaking Bridal Boutique, to a panel of judges and an audience of entrepreneurs.

“Having the chance to present our business plan to an entire room of entrepreneurs and getting such great reactions helped to boost our confidence for our presentation at the International Career Development Conference,” Floyd says. “It also opened multiple doors to networking opportunities that we never would have had without competing at the BOOM Competition.”

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DaviD fLeminG, M.D., chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine and director of the Center for Health Ethics at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, has been named presidentelect of the American College of Physicians, the largest medical specialty organization in the United States. Fleming’s one-year term as president-elect began in April during ACP’s annual scientific meeting in San Francisco. He will serve as president from 2014 to 2015, the centennial year for the organization that was founded in 1915.

The Columbia College Board of Trustees has bestowed the title of president emeritus on President GeRaLD t. bRoUDeR. The only other Columbia College president to receive the honor of the title president emeritus was Luella St. Clair-Moss, for whom St. Clair Hall is named. St. Clair-Moss served the college for 21 years from 1893–1897, 1899–1903 and 1909–1920. Brouder served 18 years as Columbia College’s president.

JR LawLess, an Edward Jones financial adviser in Columbia, recently returned from the firm’s 2013 Financial Advisor Leaders Conference. This conference recognizes leaders in the financial services firm.

Lawless was one of only 793 who qualified out of the firm’s nearly 12,000 financial advisers. The 2013 conference took place in May at the firm’s headquarters in St. Louis.

betsy RoDRiGUeZ, vice president for human resources for the University of Missouri System, received the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources 2013 Distinguished Service Award. The award honors a CUPA-HR member who has provided outstanding service to the association through constituent activities, such as service in governance or leadership roles, or through professional development contributions in support of the association. The award includes a $3,000 contribution made by CUPAHR to the endowment or scholarship of Rodriguez’s choice.

OPENING BELL

regional roundup

Audrain Medical Center Changes Hands

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SM Health Care and Audrain Medical Center in Mexico, Mo., recently signed an agreement under which SSM will own and operate the medical center and its nine MedChoice rural clinics. The agreement became effective April 1. In making the announcement, SSM added that it would form a Mid-Missouri Region because of the proximity of the medical center and its clinics to SSM’s St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City. Brent VanConia, president of St. Mary’s Health Center, will become interim president of SSM’s Mid-Missouri Region.

SSM owns and operates 17 hospitals in four states — Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois — and employs 801 physicians. Audrain Medical Center is an 88-bed acute-care facility with more than 500 employees and 40 active physicians and nurse practitioners. The medical center has been providing health care in Audrain County since 1918.

“Bringing Audrain Medical Center and MedChoice into the SSM Health Care system will allow us to enhance our health care ministry to better serve the people of midMissouri,” says SSM Health Care President/CEO William P. Thompson. “Audrain Medical Center has an excellent reputation for providing high-quality care, and we are pleased to join them in serving the community.”

QC Supply

Expands To Sedalia

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C Supply, an international distributor of agricultural goods, will open a new distribution center in Sedalia. QC Supply’s expansion will include a capital investment of $1.1 million and is expected to create nine new full-time jobs, according to an announcement from the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Founded in 1982, QC Supply is headquartered in Schuyler, Neb. In addition to offering thousands of brand names and a wide variety of agricultural products, QC Supply also has its own line of clothing, fans and heaters. The company currently has two retail locations and five distribution centers, including one in Nevada, Mo. Opening a new distribution center in Sedalia will put QC Supply nearer to some of its major clients. The Sedalia facility is slated to open in mid-June.

To assist QC Supply with its expansion, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, Pettis County and the city of Sedalia have authorized a strategic economic incentive package the company will receive if it meets job creation and investment criteria.

Area Colleges Name New Presidents

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evin D. Rome took over as president of Lincoln University in Jefferson City on June 1.

Rome previously served as vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management at North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C., a position he had held since 2008. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, a Master of Education degree from the

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University of Georgia in Athens and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Rome replaces Connie B. Hamacher, who has served as interim president of Lincoln since Carolyn Mahoney retired in August 2012 after 7½ years in office.

On July 1, Jeffrey Lashley will become the next president of Moberly Area Community College. Lashley has served as vice president for

instruction as well as dean of academic affairs at MACC for a combined period of 10 years. Prior to that, he was a full-time faculty member at MACC for six years. Lashley earned a Ph.D. from Iowa State University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Truman State University. Lashley also attended MACC prior to transferring to Truman.

Lashley replaces Evelyn E. Jorgenson, who has served as president of MACC since 1996.

OPENING BELL

exploration

An Intimidating Intern Former Mizzou Quarterback Brad Smith Makes A Fashion Statement by anita neal harrison photo by MAYA GUEZ

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rad Smith has always been good at turning heads.

Remember that Independence Bowl in 2005 when the Mizzou quarterback led the Tigers to a thrilling 38-31 win over South Carolina? The same game that saw Mizzou trailing 21-0 in the first quarter — and then not attempting a single punt in the entire second half?

Yeah, that showed some finesse.

Now Smith is turning heads again with his smooth style, but this time, he’s scoring his points in fashion. The Buffalo Bills’ receiver, quarterback and kickoff returner has signed on as an intern for Men’s Health magazine, where he is learning the game plan of a fashion editor.

“I’ve always liked to dress and present myself in a way that my mom would be proud,” says Smith, who earned a business degree from the University of Missouri. “I can’t say I’m into all of the different things with fashion, but I’m into learning about how it works and what makes things happen, what makes people buy things. Trends are a big deal in the fashion industry, so who sets the trends? Who helps to build and promote them? Which brands have more say than others? Which buyers have more say than others? I wanted to learn a little about that.”

Smith threw himself right into the fashion fray: His first week at Men’s Health came during February’s New York Fashion Week.

Smith attended all of the men’s fashion shows — and there, felt a little like someone had pulled a trick play.

“I was expecting a big, 20- to 30-minute exhibition, but I think the longest one was seven minutes,” Smith says.

Brian Boye, the executive fashion director for Men’s Health and Smith’s journalism coach, explains a little more.

“It’s a big drama to get into the show, it’s a big drama to find your seat, everybody’s talking with everybody, then the lights go down, the show starts and as soon as you know it, it’s over,” he says.

Although the shows didn’t last long, Smith still found opportunities to connect with fashion insiders and even conducted some red-carpet interviews with top designers.

Smith was at Men’s Health as a full-time intern during Fashion Week and now has an ongoing relationship with the magazine. Some of his assignments have included style segments for local TV, creating website videos — one of which has him in a spa, getting a shave while interviewing his shaver for tips — and writing stories.

“He’s a really quick study,” Boye says. “He picked up very quickly on the Men’s Health approach to style. We talk to a lot

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A Starr …

On & Off The Field

Brad Smith was a Top 10 finalist for the 2013 Bart Starr Award, which recognizes athletes for their “outstanding character and leadership in the home, on the field and in the community.” Smith launched True Foundation in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, to promote education, discipline and organized activity for youth. of guys who are interested in looking good, and we have a very specific voice that we speak to them in about style and grooming.

He really understood that right off the bat and was able to use that voice when he was creating videos for our website or writing copy for a story or talking about Men’s Health on television.”

Although the on-camera assignments wouldn’t necessarily go to a “regular” intern, who wouldn’t have Smith’s experience as an interviewee, the NFL player’s fame didn’t keep him from the notso-glamorous intern tasks. His behind-the-scenes contributions during the April Men’s Health cover shoot included packing trunks (shoes go in first) and steaming shirts.

“We lucked out with Brad,” Boye says. “He is a genuinely nice guy, and he treats other people with respect. He’s down-to-earth.

You know, he’s a very successful athlete, at the top of his game, he earns a lot of money, and he’s in the public eye, but he treats everybody with respect and courtesy, and we couldn’t be happier to partner with him.”

Sure, Boye’s bragging on him, but what about Smith’s friends in the NFL? What do they think of his plunge into fashion?

“Oh, they love it,” Smith says. “They want to learn more about it. Any tips I get from the people at the magazine or ideas, they take them.”

It seems everywhere Smith goes, he is destined for good receptions.

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OPENING BELL

And Then There Was One ...

Columbia’s Airline Service Now At 1 Carrier, 2 Cities by kathy casteel artist rendering by Parsons brinckerhoff

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olumbia travelers head into the summer this year with one option for airline service and a choice of two destinations.

With the departure of Frontier Airlines and its semiweekly flights to Orlando in May, Columbia Regional Airport now offers passenger airline service only on American Airlines.

Three flights a day are available through American’s regional carrier, American Eagle. The 50-passenger jets make one trip each afternoon to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport; flights to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport depart morning and evening Sunday through Friday, with a single morning flight on Saturday.

Connections throughout the world are available through American’s hubs in Chicago and Dallas. Prices for flights terminating in Chicago vary wildly from $313 to $841 for a one-way ticket in the immediate future, dropping to a range of $160 to $313 two weeks out and even less for tickets purchased one, two or three months in advance ($118 to $152, depending on day of departure). Travelers to Dallas-Fort Worth can expect to pay about $292 to board a next-day or next-week flight, if space is available; tickets purchased one or two months in advance drop to about $189 with a three-month window commanding a price of $183.

on the web Visit www.flymidmo.com for a current flight schedule, or book through www.aa.com.

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This conceptual design for a new airport terminal would nearly double the space of the current facility.

Full Flights American Airlines began flying out of Columbia Regional Airport on Feb. 14, replacing Delta Air Lines, which left Columbia Feb. 13. A $3 million revenue guarantee fund put together by local public entities and private businesses offered incentive to bring American service to Columbia. The fund provides a payout to American should the airline not hit its revenue goals each month.

So far, the fund has made one payout: $22,562 for American’s first two weeks of operation in February, a period marked by two snowstorms that caused flight cancellations. High passenger counts and prebookings on future flights have performed well since then, resulting in no guarantee fund payments to American for March and April.

Passenger traffic through Columbia Regional Airport has grown steadily since 2008. Passenger counts from the first third of 2013 — 31,368 arrivals and departures on Delta, Frontier and American —

indicate the trend will continue at a pace that could eclipse last year’s total of more than 77,000 passengers.

American has enjoyed robust passenger numbers in its first few months in Columbia; 16,669 have boarded flights into or out of Columbia from midFebruary through April.

Tower Reprieve Passenger counts were on the minds of federal regulators earlier this year as “sequestration” budget cuts kicked in last spring. To meet the across-the-board cuts, the Federal Aviation Administration originally targeted air traffic control towers at 149 small airports, including Columbia, for closure by June. In May, the FAA announced that fund transfers will allow those towers to remain open for the rest of the 2013 fiscal year.

The FAA announcement did not indicate what would happen to the towers when the 2014 fiscal year begins in October.

transportation

Room For Improvement Plans continue for improvements to Columbia Regional Airport. The city is conducting public hearings on environmental impact assessments of several as-yet-unfunded improvements to the airport.

Proposed projects include: • Rehabilitate or reconstruct airfield pavement • Realign South Rangeline Road • Acquire 52 acres of land • Realign Route H • Improve Runway 13 and parallel Taxiway B • Construct Taxiway A5 and infield drainage improvements • Widen Taxiway A4 • Rehabilitate the south apron area • Expand the apron between Taxiways A2 and A3 • Expand the automobile parking lot An airport terminal upgrade is also on the airport’s wish list. The Columbia City Council got its first peek at the airport terminal of the future in May with a presentation from Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global engineering and construction management firm. The conceptual design includes a new, two-story terminal that would total 30,500 square feet — 17,500 square feet on the main level and 13,000 square feet on the second floor.

The expanded facility would accommodate three gates for airplanes with the potential to add three more. Planning, design and construction would take about five to seven years and cost $33.7 million. The current, 16,970-squarefoot facility opened in 1968 — the project took 1½ years to construct at a cost of $3.5 million.

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e-commerce

Mike McClung (left) and Pat McClung at Dungarees storefront

Winning On The Web Two Local Internet Retailers Share Their Success Stories by anita neal harrison photos by l.g. patterson

E-commerce spending in the United States for the first quarter of 2013 totaled $61.2 billion, up 15.2 percent from the first quarter of 2012, according to a U.S. Department of Commerce estimate. Contrast that to the 3.7 percent increase that total retail sales saw in the same period.

And the forecast for retail sales is even more stunning through 2016, when Forrester Research Inc. projects online sales will reach $327 billion — a 62 percent increase from 2011.

Columbia entrepreneurs have used the World Wide Web to their advantage. Two local success stories are particularly impressive — those of Mike McClung and Fred Hord.

McClung and his brother, Patrick, co-own Dungarees, an online retailer of the Carhartt brand. Hord owns three online shoe retailers — MyGlassSlipper.com, BridalShoes.com and PromShoes.com — and runs the official website for designer Badgley Mischka, fulfilling all site orders.

McClung and Hord have stories to share and advice to give about online retail, the challenges they’ve faced, and where to find success.

Dungarees Mike and Patrick McClung began Dungarees as a brick-and-mortar retailer of Carhartt products in Columbia in late 1999. This was a few years after the brothers launched Phoenix Contractors, and a couple of years before they ventured into the bar industry with their acquisition of Déjà Vu, followed by Tonic and Quinton’s.

“We have ideas, and we act on them,” Mike McClung says with a laugh.

Their original idea for Dungarees was to take it online immediately, but the small Columbia storefront — Dungarees opened in about 450 square feet — did so well the McClungs decided it deserved all of their attention (well, they concede, all of their summer 2013

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E-COmmErCE attention that wasn’t going to their other projects). Finally, in early 2003, after a couple of Columbia moves and opening a second store in St. Charles, the McClung brothers launched Dungarees.net.

They expected to draw online customers with their extensive collection of Carhartt offerings, a strategy that had worked well for them in the Columbia store. McClung explains that the Dungarees business model has always been to carry everything Carhartt makes, from the expected items, such as work clothing, to the unexpected, such as wallets, thermoses and knives.

“Which retail people say: ‘You’re crazy. You shouldn’t do that,’ but honestly” — McClung chuckles — “we didn’t know enough about retail back then to make any other educated decision, so our educated decision was, ‘We’ll just carry it all, and then we’ll figure out if we need to cut back from that.’ ” Being the place to go for Carhartt isn’t just about the selection, though; it is also about the high level of customer service possible when a business is committed to

in 2012, Bizrate awarded dungarees with its Platinum Circle of Excellence designation. one brand. At Dungarees, customer service representatives know the Carhartt products inside and out and can provide customers with more information than just what’s on the computer screen — a different experience, McClung says, from what customers get from big online retailers. The website’s live customer service reps can produce results immediately on the phone; most orders same-day ship until about 4 p.m., “which is pretty critical,” McClung says.

“We really focused on the service side of things,” he says, “because we know there are hundreds of other companies online that sell Carhartt products, so why are we at the top of that? And that really comes down to our service and our commitment to that brand.”

That strategy is working. In 2012, the consumer feedback network Bizrate awarded Dungarees with its Platinum Circle of Excellence designation, placing Dungarees in the top 38 of the 5,200 online retailers Bizrate has reviewed.

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“It is great to be on the same list as Zappos, Crutchfield and several other names that are synonymous with amazing service,” McClung says.

Dungarees has also earned recognition from Internet Retailer magazine, appearing 517th on Internet Retailer’s list of the nation’s top 1,000 retail sites. The listing estimates Dungarees’ 2011 Web sales as $14.2 million, up 31.5 percent from 2010, which McClung will not confirm but calls “good assumptions.”

Achieving such success has required “hundreds of transitions” as Dungarees has grown from a single store to multiple locations totaling close to 60,000 square feet.

“That growth is going from literally digging through boxes to find stuff for people who have ordered something online to automated wrist scanners and a super complex and electronic-based warehouse system,” McClung says.

Developing the website and keeping it optimized for everything from search engine results to consumer behavior is a challenge — and that doesn’t even begin to encompass the challenge of order fulfillment.

“And that’s by far the biggest challenge [for me as the owner] because it involves a lot more employees, a lot more infrastructure and a lot more money,” McClung says.

Conferences help the McClungs keep up with new technologies. Dungarees was among the first online retailers to launch a mobile site a couple of years ago.

“It’s extremely expensive to do,” McClung says, “but if you’re expecting somebody to purchase on a mobile platform, the experience needs to change.”

He describes predominant customer behavior as poking around on the mobile site while out and about, and then later purchasing with a computer. “So we find the mobile site is a necessity as a first step to get them to look at us,” he says.

Technology aside, McClung says running Dungarees.net is not all that different from running a construction business or even a nightclub.

“Similar to Déjà Vu, it’s not just the drink that you bought, it’s how the drink was given to you,” he says. “The basics of business still apply. You’ve got to get a good product to the customer at a reasonable price and a reasonable time. It’s pretty basic as that concept but incredibly complex to make that happen.”

markEtPlaCE fairNEss aCt

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n May 6, 2013, the U.S. Senate passed the Marketplace Fairness Act. If enacted, this legislation will allow states to require online retailers to collect sales and use tax, whereas now, states can require online retailers to collect these taxes only if the retailer has a physical presence in the state. Currently, in the 45 states with sales and use tax, it’s up to the consumer to pay the taxes directly to the state.

Supporters argue the bill will create a level playing field between online retailers and local businesses, and generate local revenue; opponents argue points ranging from due process to practical difficulties in calculating differing tax rates.

Neither Mike McClung nor Fred Hord are losing sleep over the legislation.

While both online retailers say they foresee difficulties in working out compliance, neither are worried about the impact of losing the tax advantage.

“People aren’t shopping online to save the tax,” Hord says. “It’s more of a convenience thing. I don’t think anybody’s going to say, ‘Well, if I have to pay tax, I might as well get in my car and drive a halfhour across town and buy it here.’ ”

e-commerce

Fred Hord, left, helps Mark Badgley, right, and James Mischka, background, check the fitting of a dress on a model during a photo shoot at the Badgley Mischka showroom in NYC. my glass slipper Fred Hord launched MyGlassSlipper.com in 1999 as an extension of his mother’s bridal salon in Alexandria, Va. He left the family business in 2001 to open a bridal shoe store across the street, and the website went with him. Hord’s success led him to the Big Apple, where he opened a second store in New York City and a third in New Jersey, and purchased two rival websites, BridalShoes.com and PromShoes.com.

In 2007, Hord and his wife made the move to Columbia, where both had gone to college. They were ready to be out of the big city, and while retail sales were becoming more and more difficult, online sales just kept growing — at a rate of about 30 percent annually. In Columbia, the Hords did not open a storefront, electing to run My Glass Slipper solely as an e-commerce business (the New Jersey and New York City stores closed in 2008 and 2011, respectively).

Although the website’s name has never changed, the business model has required a couple of major updates. In the beginning, Hord had the advantage of offering a unique inventory. He developed relationships with famous shoe designers and got them to make white satin versions of selected evening shoes.

“And I’d be the only place, oftentimes, in the whole world that had this shoe in white satin,” he says.

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That advantage, however, disappeared as many of the designers stopped offering those custom orders. Left with the same inventory as other bridal shoe retailers, Hord turned to custom color for his competitive edge, a good solution thanks to a new bridal trend.

“Instead of a white dress with a white shoe, more brides are wanting a white dress with a pink shoe or a blue shoe,” Hord explains. “Pink and blue and green and purple evening shoes are not that common. You can find some, but they’re not always going to be that appropriate.”

Customers of My Glass Slipper can request any color for any of the 500 white satin shoes on the site. They can also add custom decorations, such as broaches, crystals and bows, a service that has proven popular.

Hord’s marketing strategy has evolved along with his inventory.

Initially, he relied on advertising on the pre-eminent wedding planning site The Knot as well as in bridal magazines. But as more online shoe retailers cropped up — and as he lost his unique inventory — search engines became critical for drawing customers. In 2009, Hord launched a redesign of all three shoe sites to improve their rankings in search engine results.

Hord added the Badgley Mischka website to his online endeavors last

December. He noticed the designer had no e-commerce on its website and offered to do an online store devoted exclusively to Badgley Mischka wedding shoes. Instead, Badgley Mischka asked him to run an online store with all of their offerings, from bridal gowns to sunglasses.

Hord found a different e-commerce platform for Badgley Mischka and liked it so much that this spring, he switched his shoe websites to the same platform.

One new capability allows customers to see every shoe in every color available for dyeing with a simple mouse click.

He’s hoping the new platform will help him recoup some losses BridalShoes.com and PromShoes.com experienced in the spring of 2012 when Google stopped assuming that websites should receive a high ranking for searches where the terms exactly match the website’s domain name. Before, PromShoes.com would automatically be a top result in searches for “prom shoes,” but that’s no longer true.

“We went from No. 1 and No. 2 to No. 100 overnight,” Hord says, adding traffic to BridalShoes.com and PromShoes.com dropped to a fourth of its previous level.

Altogether, the three bridal shoe sites saw sales around $1.6 million in 2012, Hord reports, a 30 percent drop from 2011.

Hord could have followed new rules to boost the sites’ rankings, but his former platform didn’t allow the needed changes. The new one does.

“I have a real store.

It’s just customers don’t walk into it.” — Fred Hord It’s been one more lesson in a business that is full of hard lessons, Hord says.

“People think that Internet retailers work from their basement — that we wake up, pour our coffee, go over, turn on our computers on and see how much money we made, but it’s hard and there’s a lot of things to consider. I have a 6,000-square-foot warehouse with 20,000 pairs of shoes here, and now I’ve got dresses and stuff, too, with Badgley Mischka, so I have a real store. It’s just customers don’t walk into it. They come in through their computers.”

telecommunications

The Telephone Man A Conversation With AT&T Missouri President John Sondag

by SANDY SELBY

When AT&T Missouri President John Sondag called Inside Columbia’s CEO with the promise of big news for this city, we answered. Sondag recently sat down with the magazine’s publisher and editor for a candid discussion about the company’s plan for the Columbia market, which includes a rollout of 4G LTE service later this summer.

What is AT&T’s focus for the next few years?

Our focus continues to be wireless and mobile data. Our industry is in a big transition right now; we continue to see a decline in traditional telephone.

People are going to wireless. Probably a third of households have gotten rid of their landline telephone and they’re purely wireless. We see those trends will continue.

The other thing — and it’s a good problem to have — is that the amount of data over wireless networks has increased 20,000 percent over the last five years.

When we look out over the next five years, it’s going to continue to grow like that.

More people utilize their smartphones, and tablets are replacing PCs as the device of choice; it’s a great opportunity for us but it creates a huge problem because wireless networks run off two major things and one is the spectrum you have — that’s just the frequencies that are allocated to each provider.

I always look at it like Interstate 70.

You have two lanes in most places across the state, but if the amount of cars and trucks increased 20,000 percent, the highway would be like a parking lot. You would need to build more lanes. We have to go out and look at how we get more spectrum.

The other thing we have to do — not just AT&T but also other providers — we have to do a better job of managing that traffic. We can’t let all those cars and trucks get on I-70 at the same time or it will clog up. What do you do?

Maybe you limit. A couple of years ago,

we changed our data plan; it used to be unlimited. We took some criticism for it, but quite honestly it was the only way we could manage the network for all users. You have to somewhat change their behaviors. Like anything else, the only way to change behaviors is to sort of put a dollar amount on it so people will think a little more before they use it. That’s the biggest issues we’re facing: how to manage that traffic to make it more efficient and how to expand and add more lanes.

We announced last November something called Project Velocity IP, or Project VIP, and it’s a $14 million investment to roll out our 4G LTE service nationally. In Columbia, we just announced that we’ll be turning up our 4G LTE network shortly.

In Kansas City and St. Louis, we turned that up last year. Columbia and Jefferson City are next on the list, and then we’ll go down to Springfield and by the end of 2014, we’ll have 4G LTE service to 99 percent of our customer locations in the state. That’s very aggressive for us and we’re doing that not only in Missouri but in other states.

That’s the first priority.

How can you help customers who get poor reception in a large building, like a hospital or arena? Do you go into a building and install equipment to enhance service?

There are a couple of things we can do. If we upgrade our towers to 4G LTE, only certain devices are LTE — the iPhone 5, some of the newer iPads — so all that

G Forces

Understanding The Generation Gap In Wireless Technology This summer, AT&T customers in Columbia will have access to the company’s 4G LTE service. But what does 4G LTE really mean?

The G, in this case, stands for “generation.”

The first generation, or 1G, was primitive stuff compared to today’s technology. Cellphone users could make simple calls and that was about the extent of the capability until 2G came along.

With 2G came text messaging, but it was 3G — which made it possible to browse the Web, share photos and watch videos — that really gave birth to the smartphone movement.

4G and 4G LTE (which stands for Long Term Evolution) continue to evolve as technologies, offering users higher speeds while supporting more simultaneous connections on a network that is getting more crowded every day.

Could 5G be on the horizon?

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telecommunications data traffic goes to the LTE. Everybody else is still on a 3G or 4G phone, so all of a sudden you have fewer cars on the interstate.

When you go inside a building like Mizzou Arena, a hospital, Faurot Field — when you go into places that have a heavy concentration of people, the macro network cannot handle that because there’s just not enough spectrum. So we’re going in and putting in a distributed antenna system that runs off the Internet connection; then it’s a wireless kind of connection for a short distance and that alleviates a lot of the problem.

Part of our building and expanding is not only the macro towers, but also the small-cell technology. A tower will cost anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000. It’s very difficult to say, “Let’s spend another 500 grand to serve 100 customers.” Small-cell technology will have less distance but will cover small pockets. It’s called densification. It’s all part of this Project VIP. We know where the problems are.

The first priority is upgrading the existing towers we have and then going through and testing and saying, “OK, we need to put a small cell here and here,” so we’re gaining the consistency the customers want.

How many people does your company employ in Columbia?

We employ about 40 in our two retail stores here. While we don’t offer landbased telephone service in Columbia, we consider ourselves a competitor to CenturyLink. More and more people are moving off landlines.

Talk about AT&Ts role as a corporate citizen in this state.

I started with Southwestern Bell. We grew up with that culture and it is one that is still imminent within our corporate culture: being philanthropic, being good corporate citizens, being involved in the communities we serve. It’s something ingrained within our employees and we have a large foundation. About 80-plus percent of our philanthropic efforts are addressing the education problem, primarily the high school dropout problem, and also, as a technology company, we’re concerned about the lack of kids getting into the STEM [science, technology, engineering, math] curriculums. So that’s where the majority of our efforts lay.

I think it’s good business for us to be involved in the community. Customers recognize that we are more than just someone who provides a device that they can communicate with. In Columbia, for years we weren’t the telephone company but now this is an important market to us and we’re trying to find ways to get involved not only with our customers but throughout the community.

You mention getting kids into STEM programs. Are you finding a deficit of technically savvy job applicants coming out of schools?

The number of qualified engineers doesn’t meet our needs or the needs of other businesses. We do have a lot of jobs that may not require a college degree, and we do have problems — more so in St. Louis and Kansas

Buying The Spectrum

Columbia Skirts Midwest Merger Of Sprint And U.S. Cellular In May, Sprint completed a transaction with U.S. Cellular to acquire 20MHZ of PCS spectrum in various Midwest markets including Chicago, South Bend, Ind., and Champaign, Ill., plus 10 MHz of PCS spectrum in the St. Louis market. The transaction also includes approximately 420,000 U.S. Cellular customers, who will be offered special incentives to move their cellular services to Sprint. The Columbia and Jefferson City markets are not included in the merger.

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City — with the public education systems there. We might have 20 applicants and we test them all right away — initially an aptitude test — but of those 20 we might find four or five that can reach even the next level to interview. It’s a pretty basic test. To me, it’s discouraging. I don’t think we have that problem here in Columbia.

How do you influence public policy regarding public schools?

We have a program called Aspire.

We won’t just go to Columbia Public Schools and fund them; we look at organizations here in Columbia that maybe have programs that focus on the dropout problem or STEM curriculum or early childhood education and show a prudent track record that their program works. We’ll partner with them and the school district to incorporate that.

Tell us about your It Can Wait program that addresses the problem of texting while driving.

The issue of texting and driving is an epidemic. We kicked off It Can Wait last September. We actively go into high schools and bring in a simulator and the students try to drive and text.

It really demonstrates the distraction.

The lieutenant governor and others have been active in helping us promote this.

We just completed a survey a couple of weeks ago and found that teens obviously are a problem because they’re inexperienced but the adults are a bigger texting problem than the kids.

One tool is AT&T Drive Mode, which is designed to take away the peer pressure so when you’re driving you won’t hear the ping and if you text me it will send something back that says I’m driving and can’t respond and will text back later. Your friends know you’re not blowing them off.

We’re trying to work on how things can get disabled automatically, or jammed, because we recognize no one has any business driving and texting.

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ceo roundtable

District Champions Downtown Stakeholders Speaks Out At The Roundtable

by SANDY SELBY photos by L.G. PATTERSON

Mike McClung (on left), who owns several businesses in downtown Columbia, joined other business leaders at the CEO Roundtable for a lively discussion about the health of Columbia’s downtown district.

Topics of the day included parking, solid waste management and development. Also pictured, left to right, are Anne Moore, Skip Walther, Rosie Gerding and Scott Atkins.

D

owntown Columbia is alive and well, according to the group of property owners, developers, entrepreneurs and consultants who gathered at our summer CEO Roundtable. That doesn’t mean there isn’t anxiety over issues such as parking and development, and the outspoken business leaders in this group weren’t timid about sharing their hopes and concerns for the 43-square-block region that has become known as The District.

First, The Good News When moderator and Inside Columbia Publisher Fred Parry asked the group to weigh in on the current state of Columbia’s downtown region, the vibe was overwhelmingly positive.

“I think to any casual observer, downtown looks better today than it ever has, at least in my lifetime,” said Skip Walther, a local attorney and downtown property owner.

“When I was a kid, downtown Columbia was the only retail destination in town. As the residential segment of Columbia moved away from downtown, so did the retail.

Downtown really struggled for a while because it was reduced to banks and law offices. That’s changed as everybody can

see. The retail has come back, and I know there is a disagreement in this room about this, but I am excited about the residential influx of downtown Columbia. I am not one of those people who are critical of the students living downtown. The kids who live downtown are going to shop downtown and their parents are going to visit them and shop downtown.”

Historic preservation consultant Deb Sheals agreed that Columbia’s downtown is looking good these days. “I travel around the state,” she said, “and I can’t think of another downtown that wouldn’t want to be us. I don’t think we have a lot of challenges right now besides the delightful issues of the new pressures on infrastructure, which right now summer 2013

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CEO rOuNdtaBlE is, most specifically, parking and solid waste.”

“I moved here in ’87,” said Addison’s owner Adam Dushoff, “and it feels different than then in terms of just the makeup of the retail. It’s nice to see things other than bars and restaurants downtown to give it a feel and make it a destination spot.”

PaRkinG sPace Parking proved to be a hot-button topic for these downtown businesspeople and property owners. Parry pointed out that, despite the seeming abundance of parking garages, people perceive a lack of parking if there isn’t an open spot in front of their destination.

“We have our own parking,” said Anne Moore, owner and CEO of D&M Sound. “With a business like ours, when somebody is carrying something heavy, that’s critical. There are several other businesses that have left downtown in good part because of parking issues. I’ve spoken to a number of people who say they never come downtown because of parking issues and congestion issues. I think this is something we do need to address.”

Mike McClung owns several businesses in the downtown area, including Dungarees, Déjà Vu, Quinton’s and Tonic, and he believes it will be impossible to find a parking solution that will please everyone.

“There are a certain number of people who, no matter how nice the parking is that you’ve made, use that as an excuse. I’ve been on I think five different parking boards in the last nine months and we really look at all the parking issues. Every solution will upset someone. But I definitely think that as we grow, parking is going to become more and more of an issue. The whole infrastructure of downtown needs to grow and is lagging a little bit behind, but I don’t foresee it as an unsolvable problem.”

No one spends more time at the front lines of the parking war than Downtown Community Improvement District Executive Director Carrie Gartner, and she said it comes down to convenience.

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“If you have a Lincoln Navigator and are trying to parallel park on Ninth Street, it’s very, very difficult. If you don’t have coins, putting quarters in a meter is inconvenient. Using a debit card is super convenient, and using your iPhone, even more so. It’s about making it something that people find easy. People do not come downtown to park, they come downtown for the amenities, and then our trick is making sure parking is as absolutely convenient as possible.”

“I do believe it is a perception issue right now,” Dushoff said. “Until it becomes economically viable for the private sector to put in parking, then it’s going to be relied on the city to do so and that would require them to raise rates so dramatically high to finance it that it would create problems of its own. We’re

never going to be able to invest enough to have enough spots for everybody, because the second we did it, it would be an unprofitable situation.”

Travis McGee’s company, THM Investments, is building and planning several apartment complexes downtown and brought his unique perspective to the discussion. “I think the issue that everyone is concerned with, with the congestion with parking, is a good problem for the city of Columbia. I feel like our density, our campus being so close to downtown, has made it possible for businesses to be there.”

McGee’s developments include retail space on the lower level and he says it is those tenants, rather than the residential tenants, who voice the most concerns about parking. He says many of his

Roundtable Roll Call scott atkins Partner Tom Atkins Investments

tRavis mcGee Owner THm Investments LLC and Certified realty LLC

aDam DUshoff Co-Owner Addison’s, sophia’s

anne mooRe Owner/CeO d&m sound

caRRie GaRtneR executive director downtown Community Improvement district

Deb sheaLs Historic Preservation Consultant

Rosie GeRDinG Certified Public Accountant gerding, korte & Chitwood

skiP waLtheR Attorney Walther, Antel, stamper & Fischer

mike mccLUnG Owner dungarees, déjà vu Comedy Club, Quinton’s Bar & deli, Tonic Night Club

sPonsoR RePResentative: GaRy meyeRPeteR Boone County market President The Callaway Bank

residential tenants don’t care at all about parking. “They want to be downtown to work downtown, to enjoy the nightlife, to shop in the little boutiques and go to the flower shops. They want to do everything and buy all their essentials downtown.

They don’t want to leave downtown.”

Scott Atkins, a downtown property owner and partner with Tom Atkins Investments, said he was concerned the influx of residential development could diminish the market for downtown office space. “I knew some people who were moving out of downtown who said, ‘I can’t guarantee 10 parking spots for my staff.’ ” “It’s the money, too,” McGee said.

“For what it costs to buy real estate in downtown Columbia, retailers are the ones who can afford to be there for what I have to charge. Offices can go to the south part of town; they can go over to East Broadway and find something for half the money, and with parking.”

Atkins floated the idea of satellite parking lots on the edge of downtown.

“Our city could go buy some cheaper land and run a satellite bus. You could

“I think the issue that everyone is concerned with, with the congestion with parking, is a good problem for the city of Columbia. I feel like our density, our campus being so close to downtown, has made it possible for businesses to be there.”

— Travis McGee move a lot of your students out of the garages, but you could also have some of your 8-to-5 people do that.”

Dushoff agreed. “We need to start thinking big and I would hope that that’s where the city would step in and help out, whether it be satellite parking or any other things we haven’t even thought of.”

Rosie Gerding, an accountant who lives and works downtown, reminded the group that the parking problem was a symptom of downtown’s success.

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ceo roundtable to be downtown. I would like to see people using alternative ways to get downtown. I think about when people come to shows at the Missouri Theatre, I don’t ever hear them saying they’re not signing up for that concert series because it’s too much trouble to find parking. People find it if they want it.”

Waste Not Parry circled the discussion back around to a topic that had been mentioned earlier: the challenge of handling solid waste in a growing downtown area. He turned to Gartner for an explanation of how Columbia’s downtown solid waste district works.

“We have our own solid waste district,” she said. “There isn’t enough room for every business in the CID (Community Improvement District) to have their own dumpster, their own compactor, so we share.

We place them strategically on each block.

Everybody pays a fee into the system and then they can use any dumpster or compactor throughout the district. Now, we like to use compactors instead of dumpsters and we’ve been super successful at getting those placed.

Some go on private property. Some go on public property.”

Parry mentioned that some alleys, particularly the one adjacent to the Atkins City Centre, appear to be overflowing with trash.

“The problem with that block,” Gartner said, “is that a lot of buildings downtown are built to the lot lines. City Centre is built to the lot line and there’s not a lot of space to put a compactor — or dumpsters there, for that matter. Part of what we’re coming up against is trying to find a spot on that block for a compactor, which obviously doesn’t overflow as much.”

“Ultimately the solution is compactors,” Walther said. “That creates its own set of problems because of the smell and the difficulty of using one. And the lack of effort that some people want to go to; they just start dumping trash next to them. It’s a struggle to work with private property owners to get them to agree to locate a compactor on their property, but there is a solution and there is a plan to set compactors in strategic locations to benefit the entire district.”

Parry turned to Atkins, the owner of the Atkins City Centre building. “Are you one of those difficult property owners?”

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Adam Dushoff, flanked by Carrie Gartner (left) and Deb Sheals (right), says he fears that reactive zoning that is changed to address a perceived problem, could end up doing more harm than good to Columbia’s downtown area.

“His building is to the lot line,” Gartner explained, “So he doesn’t have the land.”

“We see a lot of people from north of Cherry [Street] dumping their trash in those dumpsters,” Atkins said. “If they’re north of Cherry, they’re closer to a compactor, but I wonder if people maybe don’t want to throw their stuff in a compactor.”

McGee added, “Some people don’t like to open the door. They don’t want to touch it.”

“Maybe there’s an opportunity for a private trash collector,” Gerding suggested. “You know, set your trash out and they come and get it.”

“With the new development, it’s easy,” McGee said. “The city of Columbia requires that you have your own internal dumpster, so in our building in downtown Columbia, we have a trash chute that runs five stories tall for the residents. They don’t even have to get in an elevator.

Every floor has a trash room. You drop it in the trash chute, it’s all fully sprinklered, and it drops in the compactor. It’s all inside the building.

The garage door comes up and the city comes in and pulls it out and you never see any trash.”

“You pretty much have our dream system,” Sheals said.

Loading Zones Another pain point for consumers and merchants alike is the proliferation of delivery trucks that park in the street and block traffic. McGee made it a condition of the lease with his new commercial tenants that deliveries must take place between 7 and 8 o’clock in the morning.

“And I have loading zones,” he said.

“I’m not going to allow them to unload and load on Ninth Street. They’re going to have to do it on the east side of the building.”

“I complain all the time,” Dushoff said. “Nothing drives me crazier, even if my business is relying on it, than to see a truck in the middle of a street — especially on Broadway.”

“The city has told me that if you have a legitimate delivery truck, which actually has something printed on it, you can double-park,” Gartner said. “You have to be in the process of delivering, and then it’s fine.”

Dushoff continued, “On Ninth Street, when you have three beer trucks backto-back and a UPS truck sitting there, then you’ve blocked the entire block.”

“And that’s what I’m trying to control,” McGee said. “I always want my storefronts to be visible, so at high noon, I don’t want Cisco delivering product and blocking my visibility when I have 15,000 people walking on Ninth Street in front of the building. That’s why I mandate them doing it in other locations, and the city can do that, too.”

“A lot of cities have delivery hours,” Atkins said. “We’ve just resisted it.”

McClung, whose Dungarees business relies on regular shipping and receiving, took a different view. “We take semi loads of product on a regular basis,” he said. “If you want multiple types of business downtown … we’re a shipping center. I’m going to be taking semi loads of deliveries on Broadway. We’ve chosen to stay downtown because we want to show that you can do multiple types of business downtown. Food suppliers will accommodate you any possible way they can, but they can’t get to every single restaurant downtown prior to 10 a.m.

They’d have to start at 4 a.m. and I don’t want to be the 4 a.m. restaurant.”

“The problem really manifests itself on Ninth Street,” Parry said. “Ninth Street is practically impossible to navigate between 8:30 and 11 in the morning.”

“Ninth Street is a great walking street,” Gartner said. “I never navigate in my car on Ninth Street in the morning. If I’m going anyplace, it’s such an easy and pleasant walk. Even though there are delivery vehicles there, I’m not thinking I need to drive down that.”

When Parry suggested making Ninth Street a pedestrians-only avenue, McGee said the time had not yet come for that. “We’re just not there yet. We don’t have enough pedestrian traffic. We’re at 15,000 to 17,000 a day. For us to get there, I’m guessing we need 30,000 to 40,000 people walking on Ninth Street for the businesses to survive.”

Expert Advice Parry brought up some recent projects and studies that shared a goal of enhancing Columbia’s downtown, including a 2010 charrette report and the 2006 campus/city opportunity study conducted by Sasaki Associates. “What summer 2013

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ceo roundtable are we embracing from those plans and what are we ignoring from those plans?”

“They recommended public financing options and we’re not necessarily ignoring those, but the community has made it clear that it doesn’t want those,” Gerding said.

“Sasaki recommended a TIF [tax increment financing]. They recommended a CID, which we did,” Gartner said.

Atkins added, “It also talked about getting more bodies living downtown, which now everybody is kind of running around saying, ‘We never said that.’ But it was real clear. Now all of a sudden there’s no political will to acknowledge that.”

“Here’s what we’re excited about: the Lucky’s Farmers Market that’s coming in,” Gerding said. “That’s got to be a catalyst for developing that area. As someone mentioned at our DLC [Downtown Leadership Council] meeting yesterday, that came in without any sort of public financing at all. We had been seriously discussing the need to have some kind of TIF district to get something going in that area, and then, lo and behold, it happened.”

“There is a concern, at least I have, about failing to implement at least part of the Sasaki plan,” Walther said.

“Because the Sasaki plan contemplated a museum district on Elm Street, which I think is a fabulous idea. For whatever reason, the historical society hasn’t been able to come up with the financing to build a structure. And what I’m hearing is that the Museum of Art and Archaeology is moving from Pickard [on the University of Missouri campus] to [the former] Ellis [Fischel Cancer Center building on Business Loop 70].

“And the Museum of Anthropology as well,” Gartner added. “They’re both going over there.”

“It’s a huge loss,” Sheals said.

“I think it’s a horrible idea,” Walther continued. “What I would hope is that the museum would find a way to relocate the Museum of Art and Archaeology downtown, because I think museums provide the completion of a package for an entire downtown. We have good 36

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Developer Travis McGee explains that his new development on Ninth Street, and all of his future planned complexes, will feature retail space on the ground level with apartments above. retail, good residential, good office and a good arts district.”

McClung offered his theory on why the Sasaki plan failed to gain traction.

“It should have come without a map,” he said. “The map is what killed it. They didn’t research the downtown; they just said where there was a hole that needed something and said, ‘We’ll stick this here.’ I think that’s where we got a negative vibe from it. If they would have just left out the map, they would have had a lot of great ideas.”

“Those plans were big ideas,” Sheals said. “And they were supposed to be followed with very specific implements and we didn’t get there and we didn’t get there with the charrette either. Part of the reason they get the black eye is that sometimes implementation gets attempted before somebody’s really thought through all the nuts and bolts.”

Looking Up The recent fight between preservationists and developers to save the Niedermeyer building revealed a schism in the community that Parry acknowledged. Part of the objection to the razing of the Niedermeyer, beyond the destruction of a historic property, was the height of the building that was proposed to replace it. “Sooner or later,

someone is going to build — and probably sooner — a 13, 14, 15-story building in downtown Columbia,” Parry said.

“The city of Columbia just built a 10-story parking garage,” Dushoff said.

“What’s the problem with height?”

“We are locked in by three colleges, and we love having them there, but we cannot grow out,” Gartner said. “We have to grow up, and every single plan that has ever been put forth about downtown has said we have to grow up.”

Moore was concerned at the prospect.

“If you look at the landscape in downtown Columbia, the historic buildings are all at two-story, maybe three-story,” she said. So something that is 10 stories next to it is aesthetically going to be a challenge.”

Parting Thoughts Parry invited the Roundtable attendees to share some closing thoughts about Columbia’s downtown.

Moore compared Columbia to other cities whose downtowns are deserted on

weekends. “Columbia is vibrant on the weekends and that really is a testament to the mix that we have downtown. That said, in looking at the big picture and in looking down the road, what are those student apartments going to look like in five, 10, 15 years? Are they going to be dilapidated? Is it going to be a detriment?”

“I think it’s important that we all have some confidence in the people who are investing millions of dollars in downtown Columbia that they’ll be able to sustain their investment over the long haul,” Walther said.

“We’re changing and we are no longer a small town,” Gartner said. “We are a growing city. There will be a lot of changes on the horizon and I think that when confronted with those changes, a lot of what we’re saying is ‘stop’ or ‘slow down’ … or ‘no.’ We’re hearing a lot of ‘no’ from people, which I don’t think is in any way productive. It polarizes people. We need to have this culture of ‘yes.’ How do we guide people on a path

that gets us the type of development we want in our city rather than just saying ‘No, no, no,’ and shutting doors? How do we open doors?”

“I think we can manage growth,” Sheals said, “and I think, as a historian, some management needs to be there, but by encouraging the right behavior — carrots as opposed to sticks — it will take care of the long-term management for downtown.”

“I remind myself that all cities have these same problems,” Gerding said.

“Parking is an issue in all big cities and there’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing. It’s just always going to be an issue.

It helps me put it in perspective.”

McClung took the big-picture view of Columbia’s downtown district. “I think that’s really the thing we’re missing in the whole conversation: it’s a place to go that has a lot of things to do. It’s not each person’s individual business that makes it great; it’s all the businesses together that make it great.”

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club Ed A Construction Boom Brings A Burst Of Luxury Student Housing To The CoMo Landscape

by KATHY CASTEEL photos by L.G. PATTERSON

C

onstruction season is in full bloom in Collegetown, USA. For more than two years now, the hammers have been swinging overtime as thousands of housing units spring up all over the city. More of this new construction is designed to house college students in multifamily units; since 2011 through the first four months of this year, the city of Columbia has issued building permits for 1,178 apartment units in high-density structures, compared to permits for 966 single-family detached dwellings over the same period.

The flurry of activity has given Columbia’s building inspectors all they can handle.

“While the sheer amount of new complexes has increased our workload, the inspection end is where the greatest effect has been,” says Shane Creech, the city’s building and site development manager. “Each apartment is like a mini-house requiring multiple inspections while the common areas

also have specific items that must be inspected as well. For the most part, we have been able to maintain our inspection turnaround time, but there has been a decrease in our ability to spend time with a contractor and fully explain an inspection.”

The apartment frenzy is a stark reversal of the three years preceding this latest building boom. In the depths of the local construction slowdown, the city issued permits for just 124 high-density apartment units from 2008 to 2010 while 876 single-family homes got the OK. Shifting demand in Columbia’s demographics has transformed Columbia’s housing market as it rearranges the local landscape.

Although U.S. Census figures show that Columbia’s residential patterns split 50-50 between owner-occupied and rental tenants, that picture is starting to change. The student population of the University of Missouri has skyrocketed in the past two decades — a record 32,561 enrolled for fall

2012, an increase of more than 9,000 students since the turn of the 21st century a dozen years ago.

All of those extra students have to live somewhere, and they won’t all find housing on campus. Space in MU residence halls has shrunk in recent years — down to about 6,300 spaces currently plus a few hundred additional beds the university contracts for in nearby Campus View Apartments off South Providence Road. The rest make up a profitable rental market that has both local and out-of-town developers scrambling to keep up with demand.

That demand is for more than a place to eat, sleep and study. Today’s students are looking for a college experience that includes luxury living spaces with over-the-top amenities more commonly found in a Club Med or other chic resort. Here’s a look at some of the larger student housing developments going in downtown and elsewhere.

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brookside Local developers Nathan and Jon Odle have attracted plenty of attention with their two high-density Brookside complexes in downtown Columbia. A third Brookside development is on the city’s south side. The three complexes share the same name and common amenities, but each offers a different ambience to tenants.

Brookside DOWNTOWN

Brookside On College ➤ Despite a fire that damaged much of the structure shortly before opening, the first Brookside On College complex at 1221 E. Walnut St. was ready for half its renters in August 2012; the rest moved in by October. A second apartment structure at 1224 E. Walnut St. will open in August 2013. The two buildings will house about 500 residents, and are leasing at what Nathan Odle describes as “a healthy rate.” A third Brookside On College building will open in 2014.

The spacious, furnished apartments offer all-inclusive leases that cover utilities, cable TV, appliances, washer-dryers, Wi-Fi, a fitness center, student union and other niceties. An adjacent, private parking garage at Walnut and Short streets will open sometime this summer, offering more than 400 spaces and featuring a rooftop pool, cardio studio and bar & grill. The two- and four-bedroom apartments rent by the bed for $570 to $780 a month. Rents also include semester passes on the city’s FastCAT bus line; Brookside leases additional parking spaces from the city and offers those as another option for residents. As summer began, four of the seven unit styles in the two buildings were sold out, with another style nearly full.

MORE TO COME

The Odles’ Trittenbach Development has yet another housing complex in the works, on Discovery Parkway at U.S. 63. Early plans for the 200-acre property near Tolton High School and Perry Philips Park call for mixed-use development; residential construction would include space for approximately 1,200 residents in a student complex in addition to a separate apartment project aimed at professionals that would house “up to a couple of thousand,” Odle says. Rents in the student complex will be set at $399 per bed, Odle says, “a price we feel is fair.”

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➤ Five more Brookside apartment complexes are on the market within blocks of the University of Missouri.

Buildings at 120, 220 and 260 S. 10th St. opened in 2012; those at 1102 and 1118 Locust St. will open in August.

About 550 residents will call these buildings home. The furnished apartments feature similar amenities of utilities, cable TV, appliances, washer-dryers and Wi-Fi. There is a rooftop pool and bar & grill on 10th Street. Retail businesses occupy the buildings’ ground-floor levels.

By-the-bed rental rates for the two- and four-bedroom units run $650 to $1,000; city parking leases are available. There are 14 styles of apartments to choose from in the five downtown buildings, but by late spring five styles had sold out and seven more styles were close to full.

Brookside townhomes ➤ Built five years ago, the townhomes development at 400 W. Old Plank Road in south Columbia features small groupings of furnished duplexes and rowhouse-style dwellings for 550 residents. Inclusive rates encompass utilities, cable TV, appliances, washerdryers and Wi-Fi. Pets are permitted.

Featured amenities include two pools, a clubhouse, a fitness center and plentiful parking; a shuttle bus runs to the university campus. All Brookside residents may use the amenities at any other Brookside property.

By-the-bed leases for the two- and four-bedroom units range from $400 to $520 a month; Brookside Townhomes has a high occupancy rate; by June 1, only three units remained available.

the lofts at 308 ninth 308 S. Ninth St. ➤ The Lofts is a 64-unit apartment building across the street from the University of Missouri that will open on Aug. 15. The all-inclusive lease covers utilities, cable TV, Internet, appliances, washer-dryers and private baths with Jacuzzi tubs. Upscale touches include 50-inch flat-screen TVs, Brazilian hardwood floors, granite countertops and private balconies.

Two-bedroom units rent for $699 to $999 per bedroom, and onebedroom units go for $1,299. Capacity is 120 residents, for which the management reports a robust leasing rate. Some parking is available at nearby University of Missouri lots and MU’s Hitt Street garage.

The Lofts on Ninth was developed by THM Investments, a local group headed by Certified Realty owner Travis McGee.

The Parking Puzzle With 2,000 new apartment dwellers living downtown, Columbians are feeling the palpable effects of the city’s most recent building boom.

Traffic count has increased throughout the city as Columbia’s population has increased. Parking is a limited resource, and not every new apartment building offers private parking for every resident. The city maintains 4,100 public parking spaces downtown in garages, off-street surface lots and metered on-street spaces. All five of the city’s current parking garages are oversold with waiting lists, as is the Short Street garage still under construction.

“We’re trying to educate our residents,” says Brookside developer Nathan Odle. “They can have the urban lifestyle of living in downtown Columbia, and they can live that lifestyle without a car.”

the den aspen heights grindstone parkway ➤ The student housing boom continues on Columbia’s south side as construction begins on The Den, a 158-unit development on Grindstone Parkway across from the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

A mix of two- and four-bedroom apartments will house 552 residents, featuring full furnishings, private baths, appliances, washer-dryers, bigscreen flat-panel TVs and Internet access.

Planned amenities on the 10-acre site include a clubhouse, pool with lounge decks, volleyball courts, bocce ball, an outdoor kitchen, fire pits, cyber café, fitness center, tanning beds, theater lounge, game room, study rooms, bike/scooter storage and on-site parking. The Den will open in August 2014.

O’Fallon-based Optimus LLC is developing The Den in partnership with Gilbane Development of Rhode Island and Dallas architectural firm Humphreys & Partners Architects.

2701 E. nifong blvd. ➤ A year ago, the 40-acre parcel of land at Nifong Boulevard and Ponderosa Street was in its final days as Regency Mobile Home Park. In August, the razed and reconstructed property will reopen as Aspen Heights, Columbia’s newest upscale student housing development.

The 318 units in the complex are styled as individual homes with front porches (porch swing included). Available floor plans include two- and threebedroom cottages, four- and five-bedroom homes, and four- and five-unit rowhouses. The furnished homes feature private baths, appliances, washerdryers and on-street parking in a gated community with individual security systems. Aspen Heights boasts “resort-style” amenities for its 972 residents, such as a California-style pool and spa, clubhouse, movie theater, beach volleyball court, jogging trail, full basketball court, and outdoor patio and deck. A private shuttle runs to the MU campus and to downtown on evenings and weekends.

Aspen Heights is a Texas-based development company with corporate headquarters in Austin. The company owns and operates properties in nine states; proceeds from leasing revenues help fund its charitable arm, Aspen Heights in Africa, which provides housing and education opportunities for families in Africa. summer 2013

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the domain 3100 E. Stadium Blvd. ➤ Set to open in August, The Domain is one of two brand-new housing complexes for students in Columbia. The 228-unit development in Crosscreek Center, at U.S. 63 and Stadium Boulevard, is part of a mixed-use commercial area that languished for four years after a contentious rezoning battle. Construction began on the site in 2012.

The 654 residents may choose among several floor plans for one- and two-bedroom furnished apartments, or four-bedroom furnished flats and townhomes. All-inclusive rent covers utilities, appliances, cable, flat-screen HDTVs, Wi-Fi and washer-dryers. The Domain’s extensive list of luxury amenities includes a 100,000-gallon pool, clubhouse, fitness facility, tanning beds, game room, multiuse theater, gaming center, full-swing golf simulator, volleyball courts, outdoor kitchen, business center and conference rooms, Internet café and valet trash service. Parking is available, as is a private shuttle bus with a direct, nonstop route to the University of Missouri campus a mile away. The Domain filled all its spaces in January and maintains a waiting list.

A Break Time Neighborhood Market and FFO furniture store have opened in the surrounding Crosscreek area. Future development includes a Taco Bell, Saxbys Coffee and a hotel, reportedly a Holiday Inn Express and Suites. The Domain is owned and operated by Asset Campus Housing of Houston, which manages more than 100 other similar properties nationwide.

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the grove 3200 Rock Quarry Road ➤ This 35-acre development on Columbia’s south side was the first in the new wave of luxury student housing. Built in a matter of months in 2011, the nine-building apartment complex suffered from glitches in the opening weeks, but has remained at nearly full occupancy in the two years it has been open.

The Grove offers individual leases by the bed to its 624 residents with a choice of twoor three- or four-bedroom floor plans. The furnished apartments include such all-inclusive amenities as private bath, washer-dryers, utilities, high-speed Internet, cable TV, pool, volleyball and basketball courts, and fire pit.

A clubhouse features a game room, workout room, tanning beds, coffee bar and a library.

Free parking and a shuttle bus to the university campus are also included in the rent.

The Grove is owned and operated by Campus Crest, a development company based in Charlotte, N.C., with 44 student housing developments across the country.

a crowded market The recent surge in construction has added more than 4,000 new beds to Columbia’s student-centric apartment market in the past few years. Several thousand more are set to join that market in the next year or two, and still others are in the planning stages.

As complexes continue to open at a dizzying rate, market watchers are beginning to wonder if Columbia has reached its saturation point.

The city’s planning staff is letting the market run its course on this type of housing, says Development Services Manager Patrick Zenner. “It is not staff’s role to try to control or direct the market,” Zenner says.

The housing market is a cyclical business of supply and demand where timing is everything, says Nathan Odle, developer of the Brookside complexes. “Real estate is interesting,” he says. “There’s a lead time — it takes about a year to get a project going, and by the time you recognize the market is overbuilt, the project’s already underway and you’ve overshot. It works the same way on the other end. When demand outstrips supply, it takes at least a year to get a project up and running.”

Odle concedes that Columbia may be close to capacity for by-the-bed rentals in the $500 and up range.

“We’re seeing symptoms of overbuilding at that price point,” Odle says.” I can’t predict what the out-of-town developers are going to do. We’re locally owned and paying close attention, so we think, long term, we’re pretty safe.” summer 2013

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Coil Construction Branches Out Into Brainy Buildings With ‘Smart Room’ Technology

Think tank

by KATHY CASTEEL photos by L.G. PATTERSON

Wireless technology makes the smart room ideal for video conferencing and virtual classrooms. Everything in the room is wireless — even the telephone. An iPad controls all smart room operations. The application works with all platforms, says creator Glenn Mertens — Apple, Android or Windows — and with a variety of products — tablets, PCs and smartphones.

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Columbia is a smart town.

Everyone says so, from Forbes to The Daily Beast; it’s become almost routine for CoMo to make an appearance on the lists of smartest cities in America. And now, Columbia’s buildings are trying to catch up.

Smart homes, smart rooms, smart offices — structures that are technologically capable of making our lives more comfortable and our work more productive while saving us money and handing out hugs to Mother Earth — are making big waves in the construction industry. In Columbia, Coil Construction has taken the techie plunge and built a smart room within the contractor’s offices at 209 E. Broadway. The automated, energyefficient multiuse room boasts several “green” practices as well, featuring recycled materials and natural light.

“We needed to expand,” company founder and president Randy Coil says. “We could have moved and built elsewhere, or we could stay and find a way to make better use of our space. We chose to stay.”

Coil, who owns the building at Second and Broadway that houses his company and other tenants, proposed a makeover for a dark, underutilized room he shared with building tenant Personalized Computers. The space’s previous occupant was a company that sold home theater equipment — hence its dark setting and theater seating design.

“We needed something that was flexible, collaborative, paperless, environmentally conscious and energy-efficient,” Coil says. “We achieved that. The room exceeded my expectations.”

Coil unveiled its “smart room” in May. What makes the room smart is the ELK controller — a computer “brain” that runs all the operations in the room. Activities for the room — meetings, presentations, work groups, classes — are scheduled through a master calendar that emails appointments to the controller. One hour before a scheduled event, the room arouses itself from a low-energy hibernation state and begins to prepare for occupancy, making automatic adjustments in temperature and lighting, even deciding which doors should be unlocked. Seamless integration with the iPad control allows discreet adjustments to TV screens, the sound system and window blinds. The room can also detect a lack of occupancy, returning to its hibernation state after a preset time period.

The security system sets itself each day The “Smart Room” Collaborators: and responds to threats appropriately; Coil Construction surveillance cameras can be monitored Personalized Computers remotely.

Smart Solutions “The security system will do more Star Heating & Air Conditioning than just alert you to

brain trust

a problem,” Coil says.

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Lorenz Electric Marathon Building Environments

summer 2013

The smart room “brain” is a computer system from ELK Products integrated with a user interface from Remote Technologies Inc. The ELK controller regulates the room systems and security, and affords data transfer.

The six-week building project was a collaboration between Coil Construction, Personalized Computers and Smart Solutions of Jefferson City. Personalized Computers supplied the basic computer hardware and some components; Smart Solutions integrated the software and networking, and created the application that controls the room through an iPad. “They made everything talk,” Coil says.

It was groundbreaking work, says Glenn Mertens, owner of Smart Solutions. “I’ve done a lot of ‘smart homes’ in the past, but this is the first time I’ve worked on a building that can schedule and prepare for meetings and events.”

Coil sees several opportunities for the smart room. It will serve double-duty for Coil Construction, helping to run the business more efficiently and providing a venue for business development and customer service.

“Say we’re building a new office for a doctor,” he says. “We can bring the staff here for in-service training in the smart room, and on Day 1 they’re ready to use the technology in their new office.”

The smart room will also be available for use by community groups and businesses who wish to “test drive” the room’s features for themselves.

Jamie Cote, co-owner of Personalized Computing, plans to use the room for customer education. “We can invite clients and potential clients in for training seminars,” he says. “We can teach and demonstrate our products and services.”

Mertens sees a future of great potential for smart buildings in mid-Missouri. “This room could easily grow into something more,” he says. “You could incorporate the entire building.

It self-adjusts, changing as people use it. More and more businesses are looking for energy efficiencies, and this type of cross-platform system allows you to integrate according to need.

The technology changes every day.”

High-efficiency lighting consists of T5 fluorescent bulbs overhead and LED spotlights and track lights to provide a range of lighting options to meet user needs. “We bought shelf components and David Lorenz made the fixtures and wired them for us,” Randy Coil says.

In addition, large windows provide plenty of natural light to the room; electric shades can block light and solar heat with one touch on the iPad.

Show Me The Price Tag

An electronic panel at the door to the smart room acts as a high-tech sentry for scheduled events.

The a la carte nature

The flexible nature of the smart room furnishings allows adjustable configurations, depending on the event scheduled for the room. The room can be arranged for workstation pods, conferences and presentations, and board meetings.

The furnishings and carpet are comprised of recycled materials.

“You don’t see board rooms with walnut conference tables and overstuffed chairs anymore,” says Randy Coil. “Today’s businesses need flexibility in the use of their space.”

of automated building technology makes it difficult to estimate costs of construction for a smart room — the price depends on the components of the system, says Coil Construction President Randy Coil.

“Construction prices can vary, although it is a fixed cost to some degree,” he says. “But the above-and-beyond cost to make the room “smart” — upgrading hardware and programming to integrate all the technologies, TV monitors, HVAC, security, lighting, shades, etc., would run about $4,000 to $5000.”

The additional cost can be offset by convenience and energy savings, says company project manager David Coil. “We are entering a new architectural era, where technology is allowing buildings to sense and communicate the needs of occupants among its various systems,” he says.

“We used this technology to optimize the use of air conditioning and lighting, but it could also be used for building maintenance and security functions — whatever the client’s goals are.”

Energy savings tops everyone’s list of building goals these days, says Randy Coil. “Looking at the next generation of customers, I see so much of business that is automated. ‘Green’ is the top question most customers ask for: ‘Can we do a green project?’ ” Customers should assess their projects, Coil says, and ask four questions: Is it affordable? Is it flexible? Is it environmentally friendly? Is it energy-efficient?

Three high-definition TV screens give the smart room a capacity for input from four different television applications: the primary computer from Coil Construction’s server, a personal laptop from an outside user, DirecTV and Apple TV. Multiple screens allow for seamless presentations with little distraction or downtime, says Jamie Cotes of Personalized Computers. The Apple TV app allows remote data transfer to the smart room. “We can be on a job site and take a picture that goes right into the system here and shows up on the TV screen,” Randy Coil says. “We don’t have to wait to download.”

“When you get right down to it,” he says, “the room really ought to work for you, rather than you work to pay off the room.”

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ILLUST L BY • E S Y ND

BY SA

RA

OOR AT E M K Y B TIONS

E

It’s been a rough stretch for Columbia’s economy. This city’s delusions of invincibility were rocked by the recession that swept across the country and overtook Columbia in late 2008. Like so many other cities, we saw property values tumble and business owners hunker down in survival mode.

Even during the darkest days, however, some rays of hope shone on Columbia in the form of new and expanding businesses, determined development and a surge of activity at Columbia Regional Airport.

A couple of years have passed since we last invited the Columbia business community to share its feelings about the local economy.

Has the overall mood improved since our 2011 survey? We went to 100 of Columbia’s top-level executives and business owners to find out. summer 2013

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My business’s

annual revenue is Look Who’s Talking

14%

5% 30%

➾ We invited owners and managers from businesses both large and small to participate in this year’s survey. Most (78 percent) represent privately owned businesses, while 12 percent come from the nonprofit sector, 6 percent are college and university leaders, and 4 percent work for publicly traded entities. The survey respondents represent an economically diverse group of businesses, ranging from those that bring in less than $500,000 annually (14 percent) to those with annual revenue that tops $100 million (22 percent).

The largest group (30 percent) represents companies that bring in between $1 million and $10 million each year.

A small majority (57 percent) identify themselves as an owner or partner in their business; the remainder are employees. In 2011, only 11 percent of the respondents were female but that number more than doubled in 2013; this year, 38 percent of those who responded to the survey are women.

Few millennials have made it to the corner office, at least according to this survey. Only 3 percent are younger than 30, but the 70-plus crowd shows up in equally small numbers.

Executives in their 50s make up the majority (44 percent) of survey respondents. Nearly 40 percent of all surveyed have been in their current position for 10 to 25 years, and 18 percent have been in the same job for more than 25 years.

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16%

8%

5%

22%

LESS THAN $500,000

BETWEEN $500,000 AND $1 MILLION

BETWEEN $1 MILLION AND $10 MILLION

BETWEEN $10 MILLION AND $25 MILLION

BETWEEN $25 MILLION AND $50 MILLION

BETWEEN $50 MILLION AND $100 MILLION MORE THAN $100 MILLION

My business

employs

14%

16%

13%

8%

11% 27% FEWER THAN 5

11%

BETWEEN 5 AND 9

BETWEEN 100 AND 499

BETWEEN 50 AND 99

MORE THAN 1,000 PEOPLE

BETWEEN 10 AND 49

BETWEEN 500 AND 1,000

optimism takes hold ➾ Optimism has always been in abundant supply here in Columbia. Even in 2011, when the CEOs we surveyed were forecasting gloom and doom for the state and national economies, the prevailing opinion (74 percent) was that Columbia’s economy was set for a rebound. This year, that optimism remains with 63 percent expecting more improvement in 2013, and that bright outlook seems to have spread to other economic sectors.

(44 percent) believe the best-case scenario is that Missouri’s economy will stand pat.

It all adds up to a group of executives who are full of good cheer about their own businesses this year. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) expect the financial outlook for their businesses to improve, while 34 percent expect things to hold steady and only 3 percent fear a downturn in the coming year.

The majority (46 percent) believe the world economy has stabilized and will remain relatively unchanged this year; 34 percent expect it to improve. Only 20 percent think the global economy will spin in a negative direction.

There also are high hopes for improvement in the United States (51 percent) and Missouri (41 percent) economies. However, a higher percentage of respondents

63%

My current level of

optimism about my business is LESS HOPEFUL THAN IN 2012

34% 3%

ABOUT THE SAME AS IN 2012 MORE HOPEFUL THAN IN 2012

In 2013, I believe the

world economy will IMPROVE

34%

STAY THE SAME

46%

DECLINE

20%

In 2013, I believe the

u.s.

economy will IMPROVE

STAY THE SAME DECLINE

51%

40% 9%

In 2013, I believe the

In 2013, I believe the

missouri

columbia

economy will IMPROVE

STAY THE SAME DECLINE

41%

44% 15%

economy will IMPROVE

STAY THE SAME DECLINE

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63%

31% 6%

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that feels better ➾ Executives were bracing for bad times when we surveyed them in 2011. A significant majority predicted a decline in revenues that year and were battling to keep organizational costs in check without sacrificing personnel. The picture looks very different in 2013. Most (89 percent) expect their organizational costs to go up this year — most likely related to uncertainty over health care mandates — but 66 percent are anticipating increased revenues and 37 percent are hoping to add staff this year.

In 2013, I expect

staffing

for my business to

9%

54%

37%

DECREASE

STAY THE SAME

Compare to 2011

71%

5%

DECREASE

STAY THE SAME INCREASE

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In 2013, I expect

for my business to

for my business to

revenues

11%

23%

66%

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costs

6%

5%

DECREASE

DECREASE

INCREASE

INCREASE

STAY THE SAME

INCREASE

24%

In 2013, I expect

STAY THE SAME

Compare to 2011

66%

26%

8%

Compare to 2011

80%

17%

DECREASE

DECREASE

INCREASE

INCREASE

STAY THE SAME

89%

STAY THE SAME

4%

What do you believe should be

local government’s top priority in 2013?

12%

21%

3%

12%

3%

6%

30%

11%

2%

IMPROVING INFRASTRUCTURE

IMPROVING PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION

CREATING MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING

INCREASING FINANCIAL INCENTIVES FOR BUSINESS

LOOSENING RESTRICTIONS ON DEVELOPMENT IMPROVING THE AIRPORT/AIR SERVICE IMPROVING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

a helping hand? ➾ What can the government do for you? That’s a loaded question, we know, but we asked our 100 CEOs and business managers to give us their wish lists. By far, the most popular answer is “fewer government restrictions/requirements,” although many are simply hoping for a general improvement in the economy.

When it comes to their expectations of Columbia’s local government, the group has a wider diversity of opinion, but “controlling crime” (30 percent) and “loosening restrictions on development” (21 percent) lead the way.

In general, the executives are satisfied with the workforce our local schools are producing; 73 percent describe it as “adequate.”

CONTROLLING CRIME OTHER

I feel the quality of the

local workforce is HIGH

ADEQUATE LOW

12%

15% 73%

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the measure of success ➾ At the end of the survey, we got a little personal with the respondents. Since this was an anonymous survey, they were candid in their feedback.

Most say they are settled and happy in their careers. Many (60 percent) are “very satisfied” with their jobs and 30 percent are “mostly satisfied,” while only 10 percent say they are “somewhat satisfied” or “not satisfied.” They also consider themselves secure in their jobs with 73 percent declaring themselves “very secure.”

None feel “very insecure” about their future employment.

The No. 1 challenge for our respondents is “maintaining profitability” (34 percent) but that is closely followed by “sustaining a competitive advantage” (24 percent), attracting and retaining good employees (21 percent) and developing leaders (15 percent).

There is a three-way tie for the attribute the survey respondents feel is most important for a CEO or manager to possess: sound decisionmaking, strong ethics and strategic thinking. When it comes to their personal measure of success, there is one clear-cut choice: impact on the lives of employees and customers

Rate your job

satisfaction

(64 percent). The company’s success comes in second (30 percent) with personal financial security tallying a meager 3 percent of the responses.

It appears that the seeds of success are planted early by either a professional mentor or a parent.

When we asked these business leaders to identify the most influential people in their careers, a small plurality gives credit to a professional mentor (33 percent), but almost as many (30 percent) say it was their parents who taught them the important do’s and don’ts of business. Others who wield influence are spouses, employees and God.

Rate your job

security

73%

60% 30% 24% 4%

6%

VERY SATISFIED

MOSTLY SATISFIED

SOMEWHAT SATISFIED NOT SATISFIED

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3%

VERY SECURE SOMEWHAT SECURE SOMEWHAT INSECURE

What is the most important measure of

your success in business?

3% 30% 64%

3% PERSONAL FINANCIAL SECURITY COMPANY’S SUCCESS

IMPACT ON LIVES OF EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS OTHER

3% 3%

15%

What are your

top challenges

as a CEO or manager in 2013?

COMMUNICATING WITH MILLENNIALS MAINTAINING PROFITABILITY

SUSTAINING A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

34%

21%

ATTRACTING AND RETAINING GOOD EMPLOYEES DEVELOPING LEADERS OTHER

24%

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the short answer We left some of our questions open-ended. Here are some of the most interesting or oft-repeated sentiments.

What do you consider the greatest threat to the success of your business in the next three years? ➾ Changes outside our sphere of influence are the greatest threat: inflation, large overhead cost increases such as health insurance, industry profit margins.

➾ Government regulations, health care costs in relation to the new federal law, and regulations and fees of local government affecting my customers.

➾ Higher taxes, higher gasoline prices and the government finding new ways to tax us. ➾ City Council makeup that may impose increasing regulations, driving up the price of business.

How would you describe the current business environment in Columbia? ➾ Cautiously optimistic, with a lot of pent-up demand for building. ➾ Competitive but healthy. ➾ Energized, vibrant, easy to work in. ➾ It was great until the April election. Now I’m worried that barriers will be thrown up that will deter growth and development.

➾ It’s complicated. There is a large swell of “not in my backyard.”

While many discuss “smart growth,” they intend and/or create “no growth.”

➾ It seems to be like the beginning of a long-awaited vacation; excitement and opportunity fill the air! We are on the fringe of a wonderful rise in business.

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What is your assessment of the current Columbia City Council?

What economic signs make you hopeful for the future of your business? ➾ Houses being sold; good jobs being posted. ➾ Businesses starting to invest in the future. ➾ Commitments for future work are up significantly.

➾ A bit early to gauge, but certainly I’m more concerned now about improving policies that foster economic growth than I was prior to the most recent election.

➾ Very anti-business and anti-development.

➾ We are slammed with people needing our business services!

➾ Growing consumer and business confidence, translated into increased sales and increasing business investment.

Too focused on social issues and not focused on strengthening Columbia’s economy.

➾ This council micromanages details and sometimes acts on impulse. They also sometimes forgo research, which has created unforeseen and perhaps unintended consequences.

➾ Would like to see county and city leadership continue to work closely on shared infrastructure needs such as fire protection, roads, bridges, police, etc.

➾ A few of the members will listen and deliberate the issues. Some would say they are probusiness and yet they have done things not at all in line with the business desire at times. The remainder do not want to see Columbia grow.

➾ I believe they are dedicated citizens who are doing what they believe is best for the city.

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DIVIDENDS

ceo at play

turn up the heat

Fire up the grill with this summer’s hottest barbecue and outdoor cooking accessories.

Armed with the highest-quality grilling tools and the latest in outdoor cooking technology, you’ll want to re-evaluate your approach to backyard barbecue. by morgan mccarty photos by l.g. patterson

1. Magnetic flexible mini grill light by Charcoal Companion, available at Westlake Ace Hardware ($17.99) 2. Cow apron by Harold Imports, available at Tallulahs ($23) 3. All-purpose spice shaker by Danesco, available at Westlake Ace Hardware ($10.99)

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4. Rosewood flex spatula by Outset Inc., available at Tallulahs ($18)

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5. Grill spatula ($20.95) and basting brush ($9.95)

by Big Green Egg, available at Rivermist Spas & Backyard Life 6. Grill smoker

by Companion Group, available at Tallulahs ($22)

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7. Individual pizza stone in red,

by Emile Henry, available at Tallulahs ($35)

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8. Looftlighter by Looft Industries, available at Rivermist Spas & Backyard Life ($79.99) 9. 25 Essentials: Techniques for Grilling by Ardie Davis, available at Tallulahs ($12.95)

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10. iGrill wireless cooking thermometer by iDevices, available at Rivermist Spas & Backyard Life ($99.99)

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11. Meat tenderizer

by Tablecraft, available at Westlake Ace Hardware ($10.99)

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DIVIDENDS

networking

JOB POINT COMEDY NIGHT

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The 25th annual Comedy Night fundraiser took place on April 25 at the Déjà Vu Comedy Club.

The event, hosted by Fred DeMarco, raised more than $40,000 for the not for-profit employment center, Job Point, and the nonprofit volunteer service organization, Assistance League of MidMissouri. Guests enjoyed performances by local comedians such as Aaron Rose, John Adams and Bob Pugh, while Joe Marlotti emceed and professional comedian Tammy Pescatelli performed.

(Photos provided by Job Point) 1. Christy Klenklen and Tina Workman 2. Doris Ross with Tom and Nancy Schultz 3. Howard Richards, Tammy Pescatelli, Fred DeMarco and Joe Marlotti 4. Zora Mulligan, Marty Siddall, Matt and Cindy Garrett 5. Jim and Connie Loveless 6. Sheila and Al Plummer with Alex Plummer 7. Bob Pugh

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DIVIDENDS

networking

jim kidwell memorial gala

The Cancer Research Center’s 2013 Jim Kidwell Memorial Gala on April 13 honored the late Bruce Harris, former president of The Callaway Bank. More than 300 friends, family and CRC supporters filled the beautifully renovated Parkade Plaza Event Center for wonderful heavy hors d’oeuvres provided by A Catered Affair and a fun evening of silent and live auctions. The event raised more than $45,000 to fund the CRC’s Raymond Freese Doctoral Fellowship and support research in central Missouri. (Photos by by Penny Lattin and Alycia McGee) 1. Joe Treacy and Dianne Miller 2. CRC Staff: Jack Bozarth, Dr. Bakul Dhagat-Mehta, Marnie Clark, Dr. Abraham Eisensark, Alycia McGee, Alison Fea and Dr. Robert Kazmierczak 3. Kevin Troike and Ray Bozarth 4. Ada and Roger Fidler with Dulcenia Kidwell and Tee Dozier 5. Alan Kidwell and Emily Brady 6. Don Farris and Garry Banks 7. Gary Meyerpeter and Sue Harris 8. Tim and Leanne McKnight with Nancy and Bruce Wilson

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ADVERTISING INDEX Accounting Plus.................................................62 Armstrong Teasdale..........................................17 Ashland Industrial Park...................................... 9 Beckett Taylor Insurance..................................19 Boone County National Bank............................2 Central Trust & Investment Company........... 9 Cevet Tree Services............................................17 City of Columbia Water & Light.................... 35 Coil Construction..............................................30 Columbia Landcare LLC......................................3 Commerce Bank................................................ 23 Creative Surroundings...................................... 36 D&M Sound......................................................... 13 Hawthorn Bank..................................................68 Houlihan’s............................................................62 Hub & Spoke........................................................17 Inside Columbia’s Subscriptions......................43 Inside Columbia’s Culinary Adventures.........64 Image Technologies.......................................... 25 Kilgore’s Pharmacy...........................................29 Landmark Bank.....................................................5 Les Bourgeois Vineyards.................................58 Manor Metal Roofing.......................................30 Margheim Consulting...................................... 33 Missouri Symphony Society........................... 37 Moresource......................................................... 26 MU Health Care................................................. 67 Plaza Real Estate................................................20 Piano Distributors.............................................43 Smart Business Products................................. 35 Stephens College Graduate Program.............11 Stifel Nicholaus..................................................62 The Callaway Bank......................................15, 60 UMB Bank..............................................................7 Waddell & Reed................................................. 33 Wilkerson & Reynolds......................................28 Williams Keepers..............................................58

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

rendering by Jerry thompson

Creating A Culture Of ‘Yes!’

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very now and then, a really big extension of Stadium Boulevard. A good idea comes along. Some of these example in recent memory includes the big ideas require a measure of lukewarm reception organizers of Tiger risk-taking or out-of-the-box Town received from downtown merchants. thinking. Occasionally, an idea will be so Many years ago, local artist Jim big it requires an abundance of intestinal Downey had an idea for building a glass fortitude to help it survive the scrutiny it canopy over much of downtown Columbia. is likely to receive.

An artist’s rendering of the canopy showed We’ve seen our share of these big an almost Oz-like transformation of ideas floated in Columbia over the years. downtown from ordinary to extraordinary.

Sometimes these trial Downey’s motivation balloons get shot down was fueled largely by quickly, and other times his desire to replace the they’re left to linger for concrete canopy that years until someone finally once covered downtown pulls the plug. Although we streets for the better Columbians like to think of part of three decades. ourselves as a progressive His concept was quickly community, in reality, dismissed after a chorus we don’t have much of a of naysayers criticized track record for embracing it, alleging engineering progressive ideas. defects, an unhealthy This very theme buildup of greenhouse — Fred Parry emerged a few times gases and a host of other during our CEO unsubstantiated claims.

Roundtable luncheon with downtown Had the idea survived, there’s a chance business leaders, featured on Page that the structure could have brought 31 of this issue. While discussing the national prominence to Columbia’s various challenges downtown business downtown district. leaders face, local developer Scott Atkins Some of our collective skepticism of pointed out that our city’s paralyzing big ideas can be attributed to notable fear of making a mistake makes us a less failures in years past. Early believers dynamic community. Atkins’ comments in the YouZeum, the Boone County were followed by an astute observation Fairgrounds, the International Hot Air of Downtown Community Improvement Balloon Festival and a symphony-owned District Executive Director Carrie Gartner, Missouri Theatre may still have a bad who added that instead of trying to block taste in their mouth for big ideas. But progress or slow it down, the city needs to a compelling case can be made that we develop a culture of understanding and a should not retreat after these setbacks; framework that helps people accomplish instead, we should learn from our what they want to do. mistakes and move forward to the next Columbians habitually quash ideas idea. Unfortunately, moving forward before the sponsors ever really have a means having to face down the chorus of chance make a case. You may remember curmudgeons ready to remind us of past a proposal to build an international mistakes. speedway just outside the city limits, or In fairness, I’m ashamed to admit perhaps you’ll recall the efforts to build I was part of the curmudgeon chorus a minor league baseball complex or the on past projects. I did my fair share of

glass canopy by JIM DOWNEY

naysaying when the city wanted to pay $8.5 million for Stephens Lake or when the library board spent $22 million on the “renovation” of our local library. I also squawked when city leaders decided to spend more than $20 million on an Activities and Recreation Center. Today, I’m an enthusiastic cheerleader for all three of these once-controversial public amenities. I consider them to be among the crown jewels of what makes Columbia a great place to live. May Darwin Hindman and Mary Angela Johnson accept my mea culpa.

There’s a lot to learn from my personal story of transformation from curmudgeon to cheerleader. It initially begins with establishing trust. Secondly, it boils down to good, old-fashioned salesmanship.

A leader’s ability to sell the vision of a big idea and how it might improve our community has much to do with whether this vision is embraced or tossed aside.

In the long run, though, we must find ways to change our collective culture and change the way we view ourselves as a city. We must embrace a culture where we give a fair trial to ideas that might change our city … for the better.

Whether it’s high-rise apartment buildings downtown or an expanded regional airport, these big ideas will continue to come our way. If we want Columbia to evolve into a world-class city, we’re going to have to embrace some progressive ideas and take some risks. Ultimately, the decision will be made by those who choose to step forward and courageously withstand the curmudgeon chorus. summer 2013

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CLOSING QUOTES

What Columbia’s Business People And Community Leaders Are Saying “Real estate has that boom-bust dynamic. You want to be careful and recognize the symptoms of saturation … you can overcook it pretty easily.”

— Brookside developer Nathan Odle on Columbia’s crowded student-housing market

“The technology is there … we could hook this thing up to a coffeemaker and it could pour you a cup of coffee — all you need is the robot.”

— David Coil comparing the space-age technology of Coil Construction’s smart room to “The Jetsons” robot housekeeper Rosie

“I got a lot of flowers from members and other people, and I used to think of them as gestures of kindness and friendship but having talked to my nutritionist, I understand that they are now lunch.”

“I learned from the Niedermeyer that I’m either a resident, a business owner or a property owner, but I can’t be all three.”

— Rep. Chris Kelly to the members of the Missouri House of Representatives upon his return to work following a heart attack

— Adam Dushoff, owner of Addison’s and Sophia’s restaurants, at the CEO Roundtable luncheon

“My son just rented an apartment in what I consider to be some of the most expensive dirt in Dallas.

It was $700 a bedroom — the same as Columbia, Mo. Now, we can either be proud of that or concerned about that …

I don’t really know which.”

— Scott Atkins, partner with Tom Atkins Investments, at the CEO Roundtable luncheon

“I have nothing but pride. I feel so good knowing that Muriel caused this thing to happen today. She’s watching it and enjoying every bit of it.”

— Eliot Battle, husband of the late Muriel Battle, to KRCG-TV’s Mark Slavit at the dedication of Muriel Williams Battle High School 66

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