“…the SHO accelerates into triple digits as if it were raised in Germany.” – Car and Driver ,
September 2009
“ Ford isn’t aiming at best in class here, they’re aiming at ‘best in world.’ ” – Jalopnik.com
“Car of the Year.” – Esquire Magazine
THE MOST INNOVATIVE CAR* IN AMERICA. Clearly, others have experienced everything we’ve put into the all-new Taurus. Like radar that monitors and alerts you when sensors detect vehicles in front of you, behind you and in your blind spots.** And SYNC®† hands-free, voice-activated communications and entertainment. Now? It’s your turn. We speak car. We speak the all-new Ford Taurus. *Class is five-passenger large cars equipped with standard and optional driver-centric features. **Available features. †Optional. Driving while distracted can result in loss of vehicle control. Only use mobile phones and other devices, even with voice commands, when it is safe to do so.
INTRODUCING THE ALL-N EW TAURUS
CONTENTS
Inside Columbia’s CEO • ColumbiaCEO.com • Fall 2009
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8 Opening Bell: The Buzz On CoMo Biz 10 The Columbia/Boone County Economic Index 13 Picture From The Past 14 Report From The CEO Roundtable 23 Entrepreneurial Spirit: Doug Stritzel 28 A Snapshot Of Columbia’s Commercial Real Estate Market 34 The GetAbout Effect 44 Band Of Brothers: Brant & Brock Bukowsky
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48 The Fall And Rise Of Mike Alden 57 Columbia Joins The 100,000 Club 63 Fertile Opportunities In Research At MU 66 Regional News Round-Up 68 How To Impress At A Business Lunch 72 The Swing Of Things: Golf Handicaps Revealed 76 Inside A Corvette Collector’s Dream Garage 81 Publisher’s Note 82 Closing Quotes Fall 2009
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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
Tom Atkins Chairman and CEO, Atkins Companies
Copy Editor Kathy Casteel kathy@insidecolumbia.net Photo Editor L.G. Patterson Design Consultant Katie S. Brooks
Randy Coil President, Coil Construction
Gary Drewing President, Joe Machens Dealerships
Gary Forsee President, University of Missouri System
Bob Gerding Partner, Gerding, Korte & Chitwood CPAs
Byron Hill President & CEO, ABC Laboratories
Dianne Lynch President, Stephens College
George Pfenenger President & CEO, Socket
Bob Pugh CEO, MBS Textbook Exchange
Mike Staloch Vice President of Operations, State Farm Insurance
Greg Steinhoff Executive Vice President of Business Development, Boone County National Bank
Jerry Taylor President, MFA Oil Co.
Carol Van Gorp CEO, Columbia Board of Realtors
Creative Director Carolyn Preul design@insidecolumbia.net Graphic Designer Katharine Ley Director of Sales Linda Cleveland linda@insidecolumbia.net Marketing Representatives Gerri Shelton gerri@insidecolumbia.net Katie Thrower katie@insidecolumbia.net Nathan Baldwin nathan@insidecolumbia.net Ken Brodersen ken@insidecolumbia.net Business Development Specialist Quinn Leon quinn@insidecolumbia.net Office Manager Brenda Brooks brenda@insidecolumbia.net Contributing Writers Anita Neal Harrison Brian Heffernan Jessica Perkins
Please Recycle This Magazine.
Inside Columbia’s CEO magazine 301 W. Broadway Columbia, MO 65203 Office: 573-442-1430 Fax: 573-442-1431 www.ColumbiaCEO.com 6
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Inside Columbia’s CEO is published quarterly by OutFront Communications LLC, 301 W. Broadway, Columbia, Mo. 65203, 573-442-1430. Copyright OutFront Communications, 2009. 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.
OPENING BELL
The Buzz On CoMo Biz Satisfying Results Kudos to Shelter Mutual Insurance Co. for earning recognition from J.D. Power and Associates as a top performer in “customer satisfaction with the auto insurance shopping experience.” The recognition is based on the results of J.D. Power’s 2009 National Auto Insurance Study, in which Shelter was ranked No. 3 among auto insurers with highest customer satisfaction. The study is based on 22,930 responses from auto insurance policyholders. It measures customer satisfaction with auto insurance companies across five factors: interaction, policy offerings, billing and payment, price and claims.
Very Stimulating
Columbia’s Johnston Paint & Decorating got a nice shout-out from the Examiner.com Web site in a story about dormroom decorating. Johnston Paint supplies the University of Missouri with paint that students can use to freshen up their dorm rooms. Trend Alert: Pantone, the world’s leading authority on color and color systems, says the top hues for dorm-room decorating this year are Fuchsia Red, Salmon Rose, Palace Blue, Lucite Green, Super Lemon, Dark Citron, Lavender, Vibrant Green, Slate Gray and Rose Dust.
Photo By L.G. Patterson
A sizeable chunk of the $30 billion of federal government stimulus money allotted to research has found its way to the University of Missouri. According to Robert Duncan, vice chancellor for research, university researchers have tallied $16.3 million in grants from stimulus monies to support research on everything from nanoparticles to genetically modified pigs.
School Colors
Clunker Purgatory These old gas-guzzlers, all taken in by the Joe Machens auto dealerships during the Cash For Clunkers program, are lined up on the parking lot of the former Old Chicago restaurant to await their junkyard fate. 8
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BMW 2009 The all-new 7 Series
Joe Machens BMW 1-877-BMW-2660
The Ultimate Driving Machine
1
test drive is all it takes to understand why the all-new 7 Series is BMW’s flagship.
Introducing the all-new BMW 7 Series. BMW’s engineers aren’t much for patting themselves on the back. They prefer to roll up their sleeves and treat past accomplishments as mere stepping stones. This inexhaustible effort led to the creation of our most majestic vehicle yet — the all-new BMW 7 Series. Take, for example, the interior. By stretching the wheelbase, we created a supremely grand cabin that features the most head and legroom in its class*. Of course, this comfort didn’t come at the expense of exhilaration. Our engineers also included a V-8 with twin-turbo technology that delivers a truly breathtaking drive. The all-new BMW 7 Series — a vehicle for those who never stand still. BMW Ultimate Service
TM
Pay nothing. 4 years/50,000 miles. The most comprehensive maintenance plan (including wear and tear items) in its class.** Brake Pads: $0
Brake Rotors: $0
Joe Machens BMW 1510 I-70 Drive Columbia, MO 65203 877-269-2660 or 573-446-2691
Engine Belts: $0
Oil Changes: $0
Wiper Blade Inserts: $0
Scheduled Inspection: $0
bmw.joemachens.com
©2009 BMW of North America, LLC. The BMW name, model names and logo are registered trademarks. *Claim based on 2009 BMW 750Li. **All BMWs come with BMW Maintenance and Warranty standard for 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever occurs first.
®
OPENING BELL
economic index
The Inside Columbia’s CEO Economic Index Boone County/Columbia Business Conditions Third Quarter 2009 Total Index (2000 = 100)* 110 –
2 0 0 9 Q 2
98.8
100.1 2 0 0 9 Q 1
94.5
97.8
94 –
97.8
96 –
97.4
2 0 0 7 Q 3
101.1
2 0 0 7 Q 2
99.0
-
100.1
98 –
100.1
104.7 102.3
103.7
105.8
104.1
105.1
109.0
101.5
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101.8
100 –
102.7
102 –
104.6
104 –
106.5
106 –
108.2
108 –
92 – 90 – 2 0 0 4 Q 1
2 0 0 4 Q 2
2 0 0 4 Q 3
2 0 0 4 Q 4
2 0 0 5 Q 1
2 0 0 5 Q 2
2 0 0 5 Q 3
2 0 0 5 Q 4
2 0 0 6 Q 1
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2 0 0 6 Q 3
2 0 0 6 Q 4
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DATE
When we asked Ed Robb of Edward H. Robb and Associates, an economic and governmental consulting firm, to put together an economic index for Columbia and Boone County, we knew it would be done right. Robb went to work collecting data from the past 18 years for 10 key economic indicators: hotel taxes; deplanements at the Columbia Regional Airport; Boone County total sales taxes; Columbia sales taxes; Boone County sales taxes excluding Columbia; total Boone County building permits; total Boone County single-unit building permits; total Boone County employment; Columbia employment; and Boone County
employment excluding Columbia. After compiling and analyzing the data, Robb went a step further and seasonally adjusted the figures to create the most accurate index possible. The result is a single number that indicates how robust the Columbia/Boone County economy was for a given quarter. The graph above shows the highs and lows of Columbia’s economy since 2004. As expected, the index hit a low point in the third quarter of 2008, and although it has rebounded slightly, the numbers still don’t approach the soaring figures of 2005 and early 2006.
Prepared By E. H. Robb & Associates *The base year for all of the indices is 2000. All of the indices will average 100 for the 12 months of 2000. **Based on one month of analysis
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2 0 0 9 Q 3 **
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Photo By L.G. Patterson
OPENING BELL
picture from the past
The Case Of The Missing Turret This stately brick building on the southwest corner of Broadway and Hitt Street once housed a publishing company but is now home to the The Pasta Factory, other businesses and apartments.
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CEO ROUNDTABLE
Report From The Roundtable
Columbia’s Business Leaders Have A Candid Conversation About Topics Shaping The City’s Future by SANDY SELBY photos by L.G. PATTERSON
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hey are 18 of the most powerful men and women in Columbia. Collectively, they oversee hundreds of millions of dollars that flow into and out of the local economy. As their companies and organizations go, so goes the success of the city. When they agreed to speak, we were anxious to listen.
Inside Columbia’s CEO hosted its first roundtable luncheon on Aug. 26, at the University Club. A select group of executives, administrators and legislators gathered to discuss topics that included the public schools, the University of Missouri’s economic development initiatives, crime and politics, and how all those issues affect Columbia’s business community.
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The Six-Month Forecast The discussion began with a frank assessment of Columbia’s strengths and weaknesses during the recession, and some predictions about when and if key economic sectors will recover. Bob Gerding, a partner with the firm of Gerding, Korte & Chitwood CPAs, said that not all of his clients were able to weather the recession and he doesn’t think the storm has passed. “I think we’re seeing a little bit of a delayed reaction from some of the national economic news,” Gerding said. “Looking forward, I think it’s still going to be flat around Columbia for the next six months. I don’t see anything picking up in construction, commercial or residential, and I think retail sales will be pretty soft. I don’t see anything tremendously positive.” The other accountant at the table, Russ Starr of Williams-Keepers, said he has seen some companies do well, even thrive, during the downturn. “In our client base, we’ve seen that it varies considerably from industry to industry and sometimes even within an industry,” Starr said. “There are obviously some industries that are
CEO Roundtable Roll Call more challenged than others and some industries have done exceptionally well. I would expect them to continue with that. There’s some optimism creeping back that the next six months will be better than the last six months.” One of the hardest hit industries has been housing, but Carol Van Gorp, CEO of the Columbia Board of Realtors, had some good news. “The month of July was the first month in a very long time that we sold more homes this year than in July last year,” she said. Van Gorp acknowledges that the median price for homes sold in Columbia has dropped slightly because of the $8,000 incentive from the federal government for first-time homebuyers, and “it takes awhile for that to come up the food chain.” However, home prices in Columbia have held steady, she said, adding “If you own a home, you haven’t lost any money.” The residential and commercial construction industries are still reeling. Last year at this time, there were 352 new homes on the market, according to Van Gorp, compared to 161 now. Randy Coil of Coil Construction calls it a double-whammy. “Back in 2005 and 2006, we brought into the market several million square feet of commercial properties,” Coil said. “That, coupled with the recession, has hit the construction industry pretty severely. We’ve had an excess of inventory for a while. We’re starting to work through that a little bit, but we’re going to have a real tough fall. Come maybe second quarter next year, we’ll see some of our backlog decrease.” For bankers, the attitude is one of caution, both for them as well as for their customers. Although that prudence is curtailing the commercial lending business, mortgage lenders are plenty busy with refinancing. “Right now a 30year fixed is around 4.5 percent,” said The Callaway Bank’s Gary Meyerpeter. “It’s extremely attractive, so our bank, as other banks, has been inundated with singlefamily refinancing.” “If you looked at the June 30 call reports,” said David Keller of the Bank of Missouri, “you would probably come to the conclusion that if there’s a wet
Tom Atkins
Dianne Lynch
Chairman and CEO, Atkins Companies
President, Stephens College
Chris Belcher
Tony Mayfield
Superintendent, Columbia Public Schools
Community Bank President, UMB Bank
Gerald Brouder
Gary Meyerpeter
President, Columbia College
Boone County Market President, The Callaway Bank
Randy Coil
Bob Pugh
President, Coil Construction
Bob Gerding Partner, Gerding, Korte & Chitwood CPAs
Kevin Gibbens President and COO, Landmark Bank
Darwin Hindman Mayor of Columbia
Hal James President and CEO, Missouri Credit Union
David Keller President, Bank of Missouri
CEO, MBS Textbook Exchange
Kurt Schaefer Missouri State Senator, 19th District
Russ Starr Managing Partner, Williams-Keepers CPAs
Greg Steinhoff Executive Vice President of Business Development, Boone County National Bank
Carol Van Gorp CEO, Columbia Board of Realtors
Bob Wagner Chairman and CEO, Columbia Insurance Group
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blanket for the next six months, it’s probably the tightening credit policies in all the banks. There’s probably not a bank in town whose nonperforming loans didn’t double from the end of the year of ’08 through June. As banks work through those nonperforming loans, they tend to restrict credit, so the availability of credit is probably not as robust as we’ve seen in years past.” “I think David’s right,” said Kevin Gibbens, Landmark Bank president. “Most banks in the region and certainly nationally have seen an increase in problem assets, but fortunately in Columbia our problems are not nearly as severe as we’ve seen in other parts of the country.” But, Gibbens noted, even when banks are ready to lend, customers aren’t ready to borrow. “We’re seeing people less willing to take on debt right now. They’re not wanting to expand a business, not wanting to take on a new project. It’s as much of that element as the banks tightening up. It’s a combination of both. People are sort of hunkered down right now.” Mayor Darwin Hindman, who would announce the next day that he would not seek re-election to a sixth term, didn’t sound like a lame duck as he outlined the city’s budget challenges. Although 16
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Hindman takes pride in the fact that credit rating giant Standard & Poor’s recently upgraded the city’s bond rating from AA- to AA, the company’s analysis did reveal a vulnerable spot in the local economy. “When it comes to retail sales, they [Standard & Poor’s] take a population and the amount of retail they have in the community and they give it some sort of ratio,” Hindman explained. “Ours is 184. That means we have far more retail per capita than most cities. So when we rely so heavily on sales tax and you have that high percentage of retail and there’s a hit on the economy, needless to say we’re going to get a disproportionate effect out of that. We’re budgeting with that in mind. In the past we’ve always projected an increase in sales-tax revenue anywhere from 3 to 6 percent. In our projection for next year, we made it flat. No increase whatsoever.”
Driving Columbia’s Economy Columbia used to brag that it was “recession-proof.” The struggles of the past year have shown that accolade isn’t entirely accurate, but this city does benefit from the presence of strong, stable economic drivers, including
Chris Belcher outlines his priorities as Columbia’s Public School’s new superintendent. higher education, state government, health care and insurance. Are those key business sectors really recession-proof? For some, the answer is “yes.” In fact, Columbia College President Gerald Brouder can make the argument that a recession is a great thing for his business. “At Columbia College, our enrollment is up about 8 percent,” Brouder said. “There’s an interesting phenomenon that’s becoming more well known and it’s that as the economy goes down, enrollments go up. The University [of Missouri] has its state legislative issues to climb through and the health of the state economy isn’t that good. In the private sector, we’re doing just fine.” Ditto for Stephens College. Dianne Lynch is new to her role as Stephens College president, but she’s off to a successful start with increasing enrollment and a surge of interest in the school’s graduate programs. “Our graduate programs are exploding,” Lynch said. “That metric has just been off the charts for us. We’re scrambling a little bit at this
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CEO ROUNDTABLE point because the response has been so great. People understand that they may wake up one day and their job may disappear. They need to be prepared with new skills sets and new understandings.” Although University of Missouri system president Gary Forsee was unable to attend the luncheon, state Sen. Kurt Schaefer spoke to the more dismal outlook for public institutions such as MU. “Those things that are a boon for you,” he said to Brouder and Lynch, “are
about how we spend that money. Those are the kinds of things we need to be doing.” Columbia Insurance Group CEO Bob Wagner reported that the insurance industry remains viable, both locally and nationwide. “Most insurance agencies here are what are known as mutual companies,” Wagner said. “That’s a bit of an advantage because we don’t have shareholders that we have to answer to and we don’t have stock analysts looking over our shoulder demanding growth.
It was an oft-repeated sentiment around the roundtable: Columbia’s city council isn’t a friend of business. a hindrance to the university because of declining general revenue. They’re basically taking on more students with less money per student. There’s no doubt that revenue from the state is declining and will continue to decline for at least two years. One of the reasons we have such a stable economy in Columbia is because we rely so much on federal and state funds. As we see those shrinking budgets, we’re going to see more impacts from that.” This year’s budget cuts sent painful ripples throughout the state. The most painful for Columbia may have been Gov. Jay Nixon’s withholding of funds to construct a new Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. “State revenue is down about 6 percent,” Schaefer said. “The governor has made some statements that another round of layoffs is coming to state agencies, which is not to be unexpected. It doesn’t mean the state doesn’t have any money; we simply have to prioritize where the limited amount of money will be spent. I think Ellis Fischel is a good example of that. That stimulus money is actually sitting in the bank, not being committed by the governor even though the Legislature did appropriate it. I think you can separate Ellis Fischel out because you get health care, education and job growth. I think we need to be a little wiser 18
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Insurance companies have operations, insurance sales and underwriting profits and loss. They also have large sums of money that they invest. The opportunity to invest those funds profitably has been stressed a lot in the last couple of years so it forces us to be a little more in tune with our underwriting operations.”
marketing mizzou’s big ideas The University of Missouri is a proving ground for people at the top of their games, but you won’t find them wearing football jerseys or sinking three-pointers. These MU hot shots are researchers and their work is bringing us closer to alternative forms of energy, cures for deadly diseases and solutions to global economic dilemmas. Their research could be a rich source of income for the university and for Columbia, but the conundrum is how to cash in. Before joining Boone County National Bank, Greg Steinhoff was the director of Economic Development for the state of Missouri. He believes Columbia’s reliance on its retail base puts the city at an economic disadvantage. “That’s a dangerous position to be in because often retail bases are not sustainable,” Steinhoff warned, adding that Columbia should put more of an emphasis on attracting and maintaining core jobs.
“The community needs to come together and figure out how we’re going to build more core jobs and build companies that are long-term, sustainable and have higher average wages,” Steinhoff said. “Obviously our greatest opportunity to do that is with the University of Missouri. We have tremendous potential to not only commercialize a lot of the technologies that come out of the university but also market the university as a reason for people from the outside to make investments into the community.” Tom Atkins, a former University of Missouri curator, believes there are plenty of opportunities to capitalize on the ideas and inventions coming out of Mizzou. “It’s a shame that the university and the state didn’t recognize earlier that the opportunities are here,” Atkins said. “The University of Missouri could become the economic engine for everything in outstate Missouri. We have the people, we have the base; everything is there, but we’re playing catch-up.” Atkins is confident that the current university system president will make the most of the economic opportunities coming out of laboratories all over campus. “Gary Forsee has really got a feel for this and a passion for it,” he said. “He sees the opportunity for MU and the other three campuses. What’s good for the University of Missouri system will end up being good for Columbia.”
Politics And Business It was an oft-repeated sentiment around the roundtable: Columbia’s city council isn’t a friend of business. That, according to MBS Textbook Exchange CEO Bob Pugh, is partly the business community’s own fault. “They’re not actively involved in seeking these jobs [on the city council],” said Pugh, a former Columbia mayor. “The process is supposed to say ‘throw the rascals out,’ but if you don’t have anybody running for the offices, you can’t change the attitude.” “How do we get the community involved in running for our local offices?” Van Gorp asked. “I’m not convinced that a stipend or paying is going to do anything but I’m really stymied about how to get people to run and fight that campaign and go to those meetings that last until 2:30
in the morning. It’s a hard thing to get people to commit their time. We need to step up to the plate and participate.” Schaefer stepped up to the plate when he ran for the state Senate and he offered some words of encouragement to those who might be reluctant to run. “I had a lot of people say ‘don’t bother,’ ” he said. “I got outspent almost 3 to 1 in the campaign. But if you get engaged, you can get people active. It takes a few high-level individuals to charge up everybody.” Missouri Credit Union’s Hal James believes an uncooperative city council is the least of the problems facing local business. “I’m just gravely concerned at what’s going on at the national level,” James said. “Everything that’s happened here and everything that’s in place could be crushed by the weight of the spending decisions being made. They’re all political decisions, none of them are economic, and they’re for all the wrong reasons.”
Crime In Columbia A few days before the roundtable, Inside Columbia’s CEO polled the participants to find out which topics they most wanted to discuss. The No. 1 issue on their minds was Columbia’s crime rate. “Coffee-shop talk tells me it’s the biggest issue right now,” Gerding said. “It will impact kids wanting to come here to college if we don’t get a handle on it.” Gibbens agreed. “It’s a critical issue for parents who want to feel safe about their children coming to MU; it’s a critical issue for people wanting to relocate business when they see front-page articles about crime; it has an impact on quality of life and it all ties together. It’s top-of-mind right now.” Although crime in Columbia is often perceived to be a downtown or centralcity problem, Wagner begs to differ. “We [Columbia Insurance Group] are located in the northeast part of town. The first years out there, it was relatively calm but it’s changing immensely and this becomes an issue for me when it affects our employees. We have to have armed policemen on our parking lot for our people when they come to work in Fall 2009
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CEO ROUNDTABLE the morning and leave in the evening because they’re intimidated by people who encroach on our parking lot. This morning we had a suspect arrested and cuffed on our parking lot and our employees witnessed this.” As a major employer of industrial workers, Pugh brought a unique perspective to the discussion. “We’ve been talking about all these potentially hightech jobs, but there’s a whole bunch of people who aren’t going to make that kind of money. We hire a lot of them [at MBS].” Pugh relayed a story about three recent job applicants. One was a product of Columbia Public Schools, the other two were immigrants — one from Russia and the other from the Congo. All three were required to take a simple test as part of the application process. “The Russian scored 98, the Congolese 92, and the Columbia kid got 42. He didn’t get hired. Now he’ll have a lot of time on his hands and the next thing you know, he’ll be selling dope.” Pugh’s cautionary tale has further ramifications for the business community. “Kids coming out of our school system who aren’t college-bound are being forgotten,” he declared. “They’ve got to be trained and taught how to get a job and how to keep a job. We can teach kids responsibility because we give them the opportunity, but if they can’t even pass the test …” Schaefer, who believes Columbia is neglecting its manufacturing base and the potential jobs it could provide for people who aren’t college-bound, was emphatic that the crime rate in Columbia is unacceptable. “I am a former prosecutor,” he said, “and I think there are a lot of things that can be done about it. I think a very good start was the [proposed] cameras downtown. As a lawyer who has litigated a lot of constitutional cases, I can tell you, you have no right to privacy when you’re walking on a public street. Anyone who tells you that you do, simply doesn’t know the law. It’s a twofold effect: it solves crime but it’s also a great deterrent.” Lynch, the newest Columbia resident at the table, spoke up. “I don’t think you can overstate the importance of the crime problem in terms of perception,” she said. “This is supposed to be a small community 20
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— safe, welcoming, a great place to raise children. When you move somewhere like Chicago, you expect some of those things and you make choices about where and how you live. People don’t have that assumption about Columbia and because they don’t have that assumption, it’s shocking. It goes back to perception. They don’t expect it so they feel in some ways shortchanged by the community. It’s not at all what I expected about this town.” Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Chris Belcher, another newcomer to town, shared his take on the issue, especially as it relates to education. “Here’s the deal in Columbia,” he said. “We educate the top 70 percent of our students very well. It’s the 30 percent we’re not getting, which oddly enough is tightly tied to the discussion we’re having here. That 30 percent is low-income, oftentimes nonEnglish-speaking. They cost more to educate simply because they’re having problems, but if we don’t do our job there, they go on the street and contribute to crime.” Belcher cited the federally mandated No Child Left Behind Act, which gives parents the option to transfer their children from underperforming schools. “Inner-city schools are compressing to become more and more a combination of lower income, English-limited speaking, and at the same time No Child Left Behind is saying these schools have to do better or we’re going to increase sanctions. It’s like saying ‘the beatings will stop once the morale improves.’ We’re almost institutionalizing pockets of poverty where people don’t want to live, don’t want to work. Those are going to be the homes for crack houses, for crime. “My job here is to convince the public that unless we start implementing highquality at-risk programs and intervention models, we’re not going to get those kids out of that loop and we’re just going to repeat that cycle. But that comes with a cost. Those programs are more expensive, but at the same time, not funding them could cost us down the road.” For Meyerpeter, the crime issue hits close to home. “My 25-year-old son was downtown about six months ago and mugged by four guys and beaten. He required two surgeries. My point is, he is
Mayor Darwin Hindman spoke candidly about the city’s budget challenges and the growing crime problem. less receptive to going downtown than he was, as are his friends and his brothers. I can assure you this impacts the younger generation.” Van Gorp was shocked. “Whose child has to die?” she asked. “It’s a very complex situation,” Hindman said. “Some of the steps taken include our new police chief, who I think is a humdinger. He is getting those police out and they’re going to be productive. He’s taking new approaches. I think we need to supplement the ability of the police. That’s why I’m a fan of the cameras, by the way. Cameras add to the eyes and ears of the police. When you stop to think, we have about 160 police out there and we have 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most of your town is not going to have a policeman in it at any one moment. Cameras can make up for that to a large extent.”
Rx For The Schools The vigorous discussion left no doubt that the community leaders around the table see a link between Columbia’s crime problem and the perceived failures of its school system. Wagner noted that the community made its feelings clear when it failed to pass the school tax levy on the April 2008 ballot. He believes the school board needs to pay more attention to the
people on the front lines. “We have teachers who have solutions to some of these problems,” he said. “The administration has got to back their teachers, support their teachers, defend their teachers if need be. The teachers can solve some of these problems with more support from parents and from the administration.” Coil, the father of two former CPS students, has seen firsthand how active and engaged parents can affect a school. “Our kids grew up in the Midway Elementary area,” he said. “The parents made such a huge difference in how well those kids did. I don’t know how you can get parents involved more in the schools but I saw that as a huge difference when we moved into town to another neighborhood.” One key group has become less involved with the school board over the past few years: the business community. Gerding wants to see that change. “It seems as if the school board, much like the city council, doesn’t have good representation from the business community and it’s probably the business community’s own fault that we’re not engaged and involved,” he said. “You need to get the business community behind the school system because if you don’t have that, levies won’t happen and the support won’t happen.” The room’s ultimate authority on Columbia’s schools, Chris Belcher, welcomed the comments and criticism. “We know it’s going to be a challenge, but I have been well-received, the conversations have been good, and I plan to be a strong partner with the business community because that’s where my bread and butter lies,” he said.. “I have to have your support with anything I do.” Belcher’s immediate goals are to secure funding for a third comprehensive high school in Columbia, boost teacher morale, fund programs for at-risk students, and win community support for a tax levy that would make it possible to increase teacher salaries. “If we can do what we want to do,” he said, “we’ll increase housing opportunities, we’ll increase the visibility in the community, we’ll increase jobs. We’re all in this together.” Fall 2009
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ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT
Sandwich Dreams
Pickleman’s Owner Doug Stritzel Heaps More On His Plate by KATHY CASTEEL photos by L.G. PATTERSON
“I get stuff like this every day,” says Doug Stritzel, owner of Pickleman’s Gourmet Café. “Every day.” Stritzel’s forlorn fan in St. Charles may have to wait a bit to appease his Pickleman’s cravings unless Stritzel takes him up on his offer to run the store. The Columbia-based sandwich shop is expanding through franchises; the first five new stores are going up in southwest Missouri. And take note, St. Charles Fan: The first Pickleman’s franchisee is a customer, former Columbian Allen Wills. His first Springfield Pickleman’s opens in mid-September. Stritzel started Pickleman’s four years ago in Columbia with expansion in mind. Years of tutelage in other food franchises convinced the 38-year-old entrepreneur that this was a way to make it in business. “I really wanted to start my own business and, ultimately, my own franchising business, he says. “Expansion was always the plan.” Stritzel’s plan — expansion through franchising — is part of a growing industry in America, according to the International Franchise Association. From 2001 to 2005, the franchising sector expanded at a faster pace than most other sectors of the U.S. economy, the IFA says. By 2005, a 41 percent growth rate in direct economic output of franchising accounted for 4.4 percent of private businesses, provided 8 percent of U.S. jobs and 5.3 percent of U.S. payroll. More than 75 industries operate within the franchising format and 53.6 percent of all quick-service restaurants are franchises.
Hello, CoMo
Dear Pickleman’s, I once lived in Columbia where I ate your delicious sandwiches nearly every day. I now live in St. Charles and simply dream about your delicious sandwiches every day. I miss you, and strive to be with you, so here’s my proposition: Open up a store in St. Charles County, and I will spend roughly half of my yearly income at your store … I beg of you, hell, I’ll even run the store. I just need you. I emphasize the need; it’s more than just want, much more… P.S. Why is your mayonnaise SO goood?!?!
Stritzel knew all about the growth of franchising systems by the time he arrived in Columbia in 2005. The Springfield, Ill., native attended Southern Illinois University before joining Jimmy John’s in 1992, where he became chief operating officer five years later. A short stint as COO of Indianapolis regional chain Ritter’s Frozen Custard and four years as an operating partner in a Wendy’s/Tim Horton’s in Macomb, Mich., convinced him that franchising was the career for him. “I’m passionate about food,” he says. “Franchising isn’t that easy. It’s hard to do Fall 2009
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SPIRIT — especially to do right. I thought I’d be able to do a better job.” Stritzel began his quest with a site search. After visiting 16 to 20 college towns in a dozen different states, he finally found what he wanted at a site on Old 63 in Columbia. “This was the last place we looked,” he says. “When I found the spot, I was looking at dirt plans for a strip mall. I saw all these apartment complexes going up in the area, and I said ‘this is where we need to be.’ ” The Pickleman’s at 2513 Old 63 S. opened in October of 2005. Its extensive menu of toasted sandwiches, pizza, salads, soups and other offerings was a hit with Columbians and by January of 2008, Stritzel had opened a downtown Pickleman’s at 1106 E. Broadway. Stritzel and his wife, Nikki, worked with Marathon Interiors to tweak the décor of the downtown location. The look and feel of the two stores led many to believe Pickleman’s was already part of a larger chain. The effect was purposeful, Stritzel says. “When you’re starting from scratch, you have to build brand identity from Day One,” he says. The two local Pickleman’s have done well month after month, Stritzel says. Opening the first store on Old 63 provided a locale where he could be successful but not overwhelmed, he says, “where we could prove the concept and the products would appeal to local consumers.” When the downtown store opened — to a different type of customer base — Stritzel tinkered with the menu, cutting out coffee and other peripherals to focus on his core products. “It was good coffee,” he says, but hard to grab and drink on the run, especially for students between classes. “Our priority is taking care of the people who want to eat.” Taking care of the customer is the first priority of any business, Stritzel says. “You have to take care of the customer relationship. The first three years, a franchise should concentrate on building customer relations to build business.” And now, four years into his businessbuilding plan, Stritzel is branching out. He has brought former Mizzou Tiger and NFL player Adrian McBride on board as his corporate development officer to handle external affairs such as franchise 24
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Pickleman’s owner Doug Stritzel (top) says his menu offerings have to pass his palate several times, “or we won’t sell it.” Balance is the flavorful secret of Pickleman’s fare, Stritzel says: “It’s the balance of the meat, the sauce and the veggies.” marketing, branding, sales, customer relations, franchise and investor relations, and internship programs. “I have known Doug since 2006 when I was in sponsorship sales at Mizzou Athletics,” McBride says. “I have been a true believer in Pickleman’s since I was introduced to Doug and the concept. As Pickleman’s continues to expand and grow, we feel that our brand and quality people and products will sell itself.” McBride says he and Stritzel plan to look at franchise opportunities throughout the Midwest and anywhere else that “makes sense.”
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SPIRIT Those sensible opportunities may include franchise agreements with NFL athletes, Stritzel says. “We’ve spent time working with them. “They’re interested in franchise opportunities.”
Money Talk A franchisee’s investment in Pickleman’s can run from $210,600 to $316,000 for a turnkey operation, Stritzel says. The amount includes the franchise fee, leasehold improvements, training, marketing assistance and working capital. He says the investment required is competitive with the $30,000 to $500,000 in startup costs for an independent sandwich shop business. “It depends on what you intend to do,” he says, “but the likelihood of success is not good unless you have an extensive background in the industry. There are so many variables — naming, décor, systems and processes, recipes. A real deterrent is how to account for sales and control expenses. “Opening a new business is quite a feat,” he adds. “With a franchise, it’s already established.” Stritzel offers a basic bookkeeping service to his franchisees for the first three years of operation. “We monitor daily deposits, maintain income statements, provide a check-writing service to pay bills,” he says. “The only thing we don’t have is a CPA to do an audit — the franchisee has to do that.” The accounting assistance allows the franchisee to concentrate on customer satisfaction, Stritzel says. “You have to take care of a good customer relationship,” he says. Pickleman’s will also take care of a good franchisee relationship, he adds. He plans to share rebate income — cash back from negotiated deals with suppliers that usually go into corporate coffers — with his franchisees. “We’re going to share,” he says, “because we value that relationship with our franchisees. We’re putting more weight on the relationship with fair and equitable practices. And it’s the right thing to do.”
People Power Respecting the value of relationships is a key ingredient in Stritzel’s success. 26
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“It’s what you do with your people,” he says. “You hire good people, train them properly, and then empower them to have successes and failures. That’s how they learn. My role is not to meddle.” Turnover is one of the highest cost factors in business. “It’s an operational issue,” Stritzel says. “High turnover leads to poor customer service. It gets down to the difference between positive sales growth and negative sales growth. We have experienced positive sales growth the entire time.” He credits the low turnover at Pickleman’s to a management approach where “I don’t dictate; I provide a philosophy and framework for employees to develop their own solutions. Everyone’s invested.”
Market Projections The positive growth of Pickleman’s is proof that a new business can succeed, even in tough economic times, Stritzel says. “When not much else is going on, people like to try new things,” he says. “A new sandwich shop is affordable and gives a pleasant experience. People still want some joy in their lives; it might as well be where they eat.” Pickleman’s has carved out a niche, he says. “We serve a good sandwich. I keep hearing customers say, ‘This is the best sandwich I’ve ever had in my life.’ When I started hearing that every day, I knew it was right.” And now Stritzel is poised to bring that joy to other parts of the sandwich-loving world. Besides the five franchises in the Springfield-Joplin area, Pickleman’s is negotiating agreements in the St. Louis area (hear that, St. Charles Fan?) and other markets in the Midwest. Plans call for 30 to 50 new stores to open up in the next two to five years, but Stritzel isn’t stopping there. “The long-term goal is to be a national franchise company,” he says. “I’d even like to go international. I’d like to be in Brazil. And Asian markets would do well.” He sits back and smiles, flanked in a Pickleman’s booth by 6-year-old Jack and 2-year-old Audrey, who’ve come to the downtown store for a lunchtime visit with Dad. “It’s all good.” Fall 2009
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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY by anita neal harrison
Ready To Grow?
A Snapshot Of Columbia’s Commercial Real Estate Market
T
he long, downhill ride for Columbia’s commercial real estate market may be finally coming to an end. That’s the assessment of both Scott Wendling, a Missouri licensed broker/Realtor with HoB Commercial Realty, and Jack Maher, a broker/officer with Maly Commercial Realty. After sliding for the last 12 to 18 months, market activity seems to be stabilizing, Wendling says. “I’ve seen the same level of activity for the past six months or so: slow, but not slower than it was.”
Mixed Report
A look at inventories for particular types of commercial properties shows that the situation is not the same across the board. “There is a fair amount of Class A office space (the best location/finish out) and large warehouse space available,” Wendling says. He adds, however, that “getting into the ideal location is still difficult for retail businesses because of the demand. The large student and retirement sectors of our economy keep the retail from getting hit as hard as other regions.” Maher also reports that Columbia’s retail real estate market has fared well in this recession, particularly compared to markets on the coasts, where For Sale and For Lease signs dominate the view. “You don’t see that here,” Maher 28
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says. “Overall, Columbia still has a great occupancy rate.” Wendling has noticed a major trend in increased demand for smaller spaces — those less than 2,000 square feet. “With companies downsizing or trying to cut overhead, the easiest thing to do is move into a smaller location,” Wendling says. “There is not a lot of smaller inventory, so prices on those units have not been hit, and in some cases have risen slightly due to increased demand for the size.”
Is Now The Time To Buy? Commercial real estate prices have come down, making this a good time to buy, “if you have the means to do it,” Wendling says.
“Banks are looking for larger percent of equity by the owner, usually around 25 percent, but interest rates are very good,” he says. “I am also seeing sellers and landlords price their property accurately in response to the change in the economy. Double-digit returns are possible with the right properties, and there are some great owner-occupied properties to be purchased for less than the cost of construction.” Maher agrees. “Commercial prices are coming down; they’ve softened,” he says. “It is a good time to get in the market, if you can sustain yourself. You’ve got to be able to look at it as a long-term commitment.” Wendling says he has noticed one particular group taking advantage of the down market — medical professionals. Doctors who rent are seizing the opportunity to move into more high-profile locations, while others are seeing this as a great time to stop renting and buy. “There are some good deals out there; people who have the money, and right now that happens to be the doctors, are taking advantage of that,” Wendling says.
Attracting New Business Other important pieces of the commercial real estate puzzle are shovel-ready sites. In May 2009, Columbia’s Ewing Industrial Park received the state’s first “Certified Site” designation, a label that tells site selectors a location is truly shovel-ready. “ ‘Shovel-ready’ is a highly misused buzzword,” Wendling explains. “To be shovel-ready, a site needs to be zoned, platted, have utilities appropriate to the scale of the project on site, as well as communication lines appropriate to the site. It also needs adequate traffic access for the scale of the site. “We are currently working on a 130acre industrial site that will meet almost any user’s needs. This is in response to the city and REDI [Regional Economic Development Inc.] declaring a lack of large shovel-ready sites available.” Wendling evokes the old industry adage in noting market changes. “It used to be ‘Location, location, location,’ ” he says. “Now it’s not ‘Where is this dirt?’ but ‘What does this dirt have available?’ ”
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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY
A Sampling Of Available Commercial Properties
Providence South Medical Village
Development designed for medical users who want a high-impact location in the Providence and Green Meadows area. Ground has just been broken on the first building that is mostly pre-leased. Future development can accommodate large-scale users, as well as individual doctor offices. Land available between $10 and $18 per square foot; leases start at $18/square foot. Contact: Scott Wendling, HoB Commercial Realty Group, 573-446-6578
1511 Chapel Hill Road: Medical Space
Five thousand square feet of finished medical space on Chapel Hill for $575,000. Opportunity for a medical professional to occupy a large space or occupy half while creating income from the remaining. Contact: Scott Wendling, HoB Commercial Realty Group, 573-446-6578
1515 Chapel Hill Road
Five thousand square feet of class A office space at the intersection of Chapel Hill Road and Forum Boulevard. The landlord is willing to finish out the space to meet users’ space needs. Available for lease at $18/square foot. Contact: Scott Wendling, HoB Commercial Realty Group, 573-446-6578
900 Broadway
Four-thousand-square-foot, secondfloor building for lease. Finished-tosuit second floor. Excellent location with windows along Ninth and Broadway. Zoned C-2. $12/square foot. Contact: Jack L. Maher, Maly Commercial Realty, 573-443-3200 30
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211 Peach Way
Five-year-old south Columbia commercial building. Ideal for restaurant, retail or office use. 1.04-acre tract with 9,000 square feet of building. Property is zoned C-3, general commercial. All city utilities and gas connected. Asking $875,000. Contact: Jack L. Maher, Maly Commercial Realty, 573-443-3200
2600 Range Line St.
Main building offers 11,200 square feet on 2.2 acres. First floor has 8,700 square feet with a showroom, office and shop area. Second floor contains 2,500-square-foot apartment. Two storage buildings: 1,800 and 3,500 square feet. Truck docks and gated security to rear. Zoned C-3, general commercial. Asking $1,200,000. Contact: Jack L. Maher, Maly Commercial Realty, 573-443-3200 Fall 2009
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ADVERTISEMENT
The Paul Land Commercial Use Report Year-End 2008 METHOD The survey encompasses metro Columbia, including its urbanized areas. We included privately owned facilities leased to governmental agencies, universities, colleges and schools in the surveyed square footage, as well as facilities that these entities own and occupy that are situated off-campus. Owner-occupied property, as well as investor-owned, is included in the surveyed square footage. Actual use of the facility, and not its underlying zoning district, is the basis for each property’s inclusion in the stated category. In instances where mixed uses occur, we used our judgment in allocating the appropriate square footage to each category: “actual use” if occupied, and “most likely use” if unoccupied.
However, the survey does not include public and private schools, day care, elementary, middle and secondary schools, colleges and universities, and buildings on those campuses. Also, it does not include convenience stores, self-storage facilities, hotels and motels, governmentowned facilities that they occupy, the Central Business District, hospitals, transitional housing and shelters, and commercial multifamily housing and their management offices. It is our intent to update this study on an annual basis using the baseline of gathered information to provide community leaders and business interests with a trend analysis in future years.
Per Capita Sq. Ft. Year-End 2008
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI MARKET SURVEY
(Population estimated at 97,000 for City of Columbia)
Year-End 2008
Square Feet Per Capita
100
TOTAL INVENTORY Total Square Footage ................. 19,805,800 Total Vacant Square Footage ......... 1,773,416 Columbia Vacancy Rate ......................8.95%
80
RETAIL INVENTORY Total Square Footage ................... 6,915,750 Total Vacant Square Footage ............ 812,076 Columbia Vacancy Rate ....................11.74% U.S. Vacancy Rate .....................10.8%
60
40
OFFICE INVENTORY Total Square Footage ................... 4,682,800 Total Vacant Square Footage ............ 420,540 Columbia Vacancy Rate ......................8.98% U.S. Vacancy Rate .....................13.9%
20 0
Office Inventory
Retail Inventory
Industrial Inventory
48 sq. ft. per capita
71 sq. ft. per capita
85 sq. ft. per capita
INDUSTRIAL INVENTORY Total Square Footage ................... 8,207,250 Total Vacant Square Footage ............ 540,800 Columbia Vacancy Rate ......................6.59% U.S. Vacancy Rate .....................11.1%
SOURCE: This information has been provided by Paul Land, Plaza Real Estate Services Commercial Division, through sources deemed reliable. It is intended to provide our customers and clients with a general overview of market conditions in the Columbia area. Regional Economic Development Inc., Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Missouri CORE, certain commercial appraisers, commercial lenders, business attorneys and accountants, among others, have received written authorization by Plaza Real Estate Services to redistribute this information as part of their reports to prospective customers, clients and related inquiries, provided Plaza is identified as the originating source. Questions about this report and its permitted duplication should be directed to Paul Land or Mike Grellner of Plaza Real Estate Services.
“I think the community is not educated, and they don’t understand it.” — Kim March, PedNet’s director of operations
The GetAbout Millions of dollars have been spent and millions more committed to infrastructure and education projects. As Columbia rides into the last year of a $22.5 million nonmotorized transportation grant, can our city boast a positive return on the federal government’s investment? By Brian Heffernan
Photos by L.G. Patterson
The GetAbout Effect
In September 2006, $22.5 million rode into Columbia by way of a federal nonmotorized transportation grant. The grant application was a no-brainer, city leaders said: besides developing a healthier, more attractive city, the federal largesse would make Columbia a more enticing place to attract new residents, businesses and tourists, and it would pump millions of construction money into the city’s economy to boot. CoMo stood on the brink of becoming the next Portland, the Oregon city that is the poster child for nonmotorized transportation and consistently rated the most bike-friendly city in North America. Now it’s 2009. As Columbia enters the fourth and final year of grant funding, it is time to ask: What has been the return on investment? If this grant was supposed to provide an economic development facelift to the city, how efficiently has GetAbout Columbia, the group charged with administering the grant, operated? And what does Columbia have to show for $22.5 million?
A Tale Of Two Investments GetAbout Columbia split the grant funding into two branches of investment — $17 million for infrastructure and $3.5 million for non-infrastructure. The remainder of the grant — about $2 million — gets spread out between city payroll, supplies and expenses for the GetAbout office at 101 Seventh St. The city’s Public Works Department manages the engineering/design and construction of 21 planned physical infrastructure projects and other nonconstruction projects, including a system of painted bike lanes and routes. As of Sept. 1 — three years into the four-year grant — only three of those 21 projects have been completed; no others have even broken ground. All three were
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intersection improvements totaling nearly $1.3 million for the junctions of Forum and Stadium boulevards, Providence Road and Stadium Boulevard, and Providence and Stewart roads. The improvements included alterations with pedestrian countdown timers, right-turn positioning and pedestrian island locations among other small changes. Though three $52,000 sidewalk projects spanning just one-fifth of a mile total — on West Ash Street, Leeway Drive and Smiley Lane — are next on the list to break ground, the next major project is the $1.5 million South Providence Bikeway. The bikeway will stretch from Green Meadows Road to the end of Providence Road near Rock Bridge Elementary School. Out of the nearly $17 million allocated for infrastructure, GetAbout Columbia has three main types of construction-heavy projects planned: 8.75 miles of trails and trail connectors costing $8.8 million; 3.4 miles of sidewalks costing $2.7 million; and five intersection improvements totaling $2.5 million. GetAbout holds another $2 million for projects still awaiting Columbia City Council approval. Such projects include MKT Trail connectors near Katy Lane and Wilson’s Fitness on Forum Boulevard, rain gardens alongside portions of the South Providence Bikeway project, and a new pedestrian overpass on Providence Road near Douglass High School. The $1 million Providence overpass and a second pedestrian bridge connecting Cosmo Park and Clinkscales Road over Interstate 70 were once trumpeted as signature projects of the grant. The I-70 bridge has since been removed from the GetAbout budget. The list of infrastructure projects has changed several times since 2006, and is still subject to the whims of the
City Council, says GetAbout Columbia Manager Ted Curtis. “City Council makes the decisions on which projects go forward and which ones don’t,” Curtis says. “We’re just doing more meat-and-potatoes-type projects now.” In addition to the construction projects, GetAbout is shelling out $1.7 million for 21 miles of bike lanes, 41 miles of “sharrow”-marked bike routes — usually found on less-traveled streets or those roads too narrow for delineated bike lanes — 1,000 bike parking spaces, a few experiments with back-in parking and bike boulevards, and residential street designations to encourage bike use and reduce auto traffic. Curtis says that the amount of time it has taken for GetAbout to break ground on the infrastructure projects has been expected. “A typical Public Works project spans four to five years before you can break ground,” he says. “These have actually gone pretty fast.” Each project slogs through a federally mandated 10-step runaround of design, revision and approval that even Curtis calls tedious. After approval comes a bidding process to buy land that lasts between six months and a year. Finally, construction firms bid for the project and three to four months later, they break ground. Although the Public Works Department completes some of the infrastructure projects in-house, contracted engineering and construction firms execute many of the large-scale projects. Public Works selects the firms based on bids. For engineering/design, the most qualified firm is typically chosen; for construction firm choices, the low bid usually wins the contract. Not all of the grant money is visible in GetAbout construction projects. Some $3.4 million is budgeted — roughly 15 percent of the $22.5 million federal grant — for the education, encouragement, marketing, communication and research aspects of the program. The money and projects for non-infrastructure were split into two 18-month phases. Phase 1 spanned October 2007 to March 2009 and consumed $1.75
The GetAbout Effect
HOW $17 MILLION OF INFRASTRUCTURE MONEY GOT ABOUT COLUMBIA 26 infrastructure projects are listed on the most recent GetAbout budget. Five still need additional engineering design and three have yet to receive City Council approval. N
PROJECT COSTS Engineering Complete
$1,508
Trai l
19
Final Engineering Needed
Council Approval Needed
2. County House Trail
$554
3. Bear Creek Trail Connections
$1,355
– $400
13. Intersection of Providence and Green Meadows Rds.
– $52
14. Leeway Dr. sidewalk
– $52
15. W. Ash St. sidewalk
– $52
16. Smiley Ln. sidewalk
– $420
17. Providence Rd. sidewalk from Smiley Ln. to Blue Ridge Rd.
1. South Providence Bikeway
$1,427
Rd .
reek
14
Pa ris
Bea rC
Rangeline St ..
17
3
$17 million of infrastructure projects represents roughly 75% of the GetAbout total funds.
IN THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS
16
1 MILE
infrastructure projects, assisted by a cast of subcontractors that includes the PedNet Coalition. In 2007, the city awarded Vangel the lead contractor designation to manage the $3 million in budgeted non-infrastructure projects. Vangel’s contributions include the GetAbout name, the jingle, brochures, advertisements, the design of the
GetAbout budgeted a larger percentage of non-infrastructure funds for the first 18-month phase to create a groundswell of support for the program and increase nonmotorized transportation before the construction projects were completed, says Mike Vangel, president of local advertising, marketing and public relations firm, Vangel. The company spearheads the non-
million, around 85 percent of the $2.05 million Phase 1 budget. Dispersal of the $293,000 surplus will be considered after a scheduled mid-point audit is complete. Phase 2 began in April 2009 and stretches to September 2010; it encompasses a $950,000 budget. So far, some $200,000 has been spent, or about 20 percent of the Phase 2 budget.
4. Hinkson Trail to Greenbriar Dr. – $126
21
20
15
12
Business Loop 70
25 Broadw ay
$1,893
5 11
M
2
KT
il Tra
26
19. Range Line St. sidewalk from Business Loop 70 to Big Bear Blvd.
– $342
20. Broadway sidewalk from Fairview Rd. to Stadium Blvd.
– $381
21. Providence sidewalk from Wilkes Blvd. to Texas Ave.
– $300
22. Old Route K Bridge Pedway
6. Old 63 Pedway
10 23
8
– $403
7
18
9
5. MKT Trail Connection at Garth Ave.
$629
Stad iu
mB
4
lvd.
$1,356
7. Hominy Trail
22 Tra il
6
– $122
Providence Rd.
13
1
24
Engineering Complete
Bridge or overpass
– $408
Final Engineering Needed
Sidewalk, pedway or trail connector Council Approval Needed
8. MKT Trail connection at Katy Place 9. Intersection of Forum and Stadium Blvds.
$499
10. Intersection of Providence Rd. and Stadium Blvd.
– $382
11. Intersection of Providence and Stewart Rds.
– $400
12. Intersection of Providence Rd. and Business Loop 70
KEY
Intersection improvement
18. Walnut St. sidewalk from William St. to Old 63
23. Stadium sidewalk from Providence Rd. to College Ave.
$581
– $256
24. Rain gardens alongside South Providence Bikeway
$1,043
25. Providence Rd. pedestrian overpass near Douglass High School
$714
26. MKT Trail connection at Katy Ln. and Wilson Fitness near Forum Blvd.
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The GetAbout Effect
What Is GetAbout Columbia And Where Did It Come From? In 2006, Columbia was selected by the Federal Highway Administration to be one of four communities in the country to receive a $25 million grant and participate in the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program. The other three communities are Marin County, Calif., Minneapolis, Minn., and Sheboygan County, Wis. The pilot programs grabbed a combined $100 million hunk of funding from the $286 billion highway bill passed in 2005. After a round of federal-level contracts and obligation rates were sliced off, the actual spending money weighed in at around $22.5 million per community. The grant is divvied up over four years (which began in September 2006), and ideally will be spent or obligated to city council-approved projects before a final report to Congress in October 2010, though there is no official deadline for project spending. The pilot program, renamed locally as GetAbout Columbia, is managed under the Columbia Public Works Department and executed predominantly by primary and secondary contractors. The purpose of the program is to demonstrate how an investment in nonmotorized transportation infrastructure can produce a surge of bike and pedestrian traffic. Program administrators also hope to show whether nonmotorized traffic can account for a significant portion of a community’s transportation load and solution.
GetAbout Web site, and the overall strategy and brand for the program. In addition, Vangel also administers subcontracts to eight organizations that complete the remaining education, promotion and research projects: Alta Planning + Design (a Portland-based firm that helped design and implement the sharrows and the Neighbors On The Go program); Bright Tree (Web programming, hosting and maintenance); Bucket Media (ad placement); Gerding, Korte & Chitwood CPAs (accounting); Naughton and Associates (a Chicago-based firm in charge of wayfinding); Phillips & Associates Inc. (a St. Louis-based firm that conducts research for GetAbout); PedNet Coalition (education and promotion); and Smith Lewis LLP (legal). PedNet, which also bid to be lead contractor, is the most prominent subcontractor for the GetAbout program. Founded in April 2000, PedNet is an independent nonprofit advocate for nonmotorized transportation in Columbia. The coalition’s share of the grant money is about $900,000 to execute encouragement and education projects for GetAbout, including bike-safety education programs such as Confident City Cycling and Bike Skills 101. Other PedNet encouragement programs include Bike, Walk & Wheel Week, Neighbors On The Go, Cycle Recycle, and the Errand Bike Program, which equips local businesses with commuter bikes and the necessary gear for employees to make short trips. Vangel works together with PedNet to promote and market these programs. In the next year, coalition members will also lead presentations to 20 local businesses on a variety of biking-related topics, including “share the road” strategies. “I am quite sure that the reason Columbia was picked was because there was already an existing population of fervent nonmotorized transportation supporters here, which is what the PedNet Coalition has built up” says Ian Thomas, executive director of PedNet. The public information campaign ran into confusion almost from the get-go. At one time, Columbia’s Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program was known by the working name “The
PedNet Project,” before Vangel branded the program as “GetAbout Columbia.” With the PedNet Coalition’s high level of activity and visibility in the community, the change in monikers has added to the confusion over ownership of the GetAbout program. “It’s really no wonder there is so much confusion,” says Robert Johnson, the education coordinator for PedNet. “I think it’s because PedNet was started nine years ago, became pretty well known, and people in the community got used to hearing ‘PedNet, PedNet, PedNet.’ And even now, in [the Columbia Daily Tribune’s] Trib Talk just a few days ago I read somebody saying, ‘I’d like to thank PedNet for that intersection improvement over at Forum and Stadium,’ which really, we had nothing to do with that. It was the city of Columbia.” The abundance of misinformation and apparent lack of readily available correct information has been a recurring issue in Columbia’s push to become not just bike-friendly, but also bike-prominent. Confusion and controversy over how much money is being spent, where it came from, who it is spent by and what it can be spent on have provided fodder for community forums such as local callin radio shows, the Tribune’s Trib Talk, letters to the editor and online comments on local newspaper stories. Johnson says people have written to him with concerns about the content of these forums. “I don’t recommend they pay attention or read it, because I don’t think it’s a fair representation of what people in this community are thinking,” he says. “The only reason you would call Trib Talk is if you have a really strong opinion about something. No one calls in and says ‘Well I haven’t really decided about bicycling. I am going to wait a couple years and figure it out.’ You get one extreme and then the other … it’s not real life at all.” These extremes, indicating a rift between bicyclists and drivers, do not represent the prevailing perception of GetAbout projects, says Mike Vangel. As a recreational biker, Vangel says, “I’ve not personally experienced [animosity], and I know other people who haven’t
The GetAbout Effect
THE HARD NUMBERS OF SOFT INFASTRUCTURE The promotion, education and research elements of GetAbout are completed by nine organizations. They spent a total of almost $1.75 million, or 86%, of the Phase 1 budget. The balance of $292,618 will be disbursed back into GetAbout. Phase 2 projects were budgeted for $950,000. Vangel is the lead contractor and manages subcontracts for the remaining eight. Total spent in Phase 1
Amount budgeted in Phase 2
In Thousands of Dollars
Alta Planning & Design (sharrows) Bright Tree (Web host) Bucket Media (ad placement) Gerding, Korte & Chiftwood CPAs (accounting) Naughton & Associates (wayfinding)
$133K
$13.1K / $1.68K
$166K
$159K
$13.4K / $10.5K
$110K
PedNet Coalition (education) Phillips & Associates (research) Smith Lewis LLP (legal)
$514K
$306K
$34.4K / $17.5K
$0.405K / $2K
Vangel (lead contractor)
$768K
$300K
experienced that stuff. But I also know some who have.” Kim March, PedNet’s director of operations, discounts the effect of driver animosity toward bicyclists. “I don’t necessarily want to say there are negative feelings toward the project. I think the community is not educated, and they don’t understand it. People don’t realize that this money was earmarked for this purpose.” The prevailing source of animosity has stemmed from drivers speaking out in these anonymous forums and voicing opinions that range from perceptions of special treatment toward an at-times reckless and traffic-law disobedient
$600K
$453K
$900K
$1,200K
population of cyclists who “don’t need to be on the roads” to the feeling that money is being wasted, a view that often stems from misunderstanding the purpose or terms of the GetAbout program. Cyclists and pedestrians then often answer back defensively and the arguments intensify. GetAbout Columbia has not taken steps toward significant dialogue addressing the animosity. Instead, public efforts to find grounds for agreement have come from just a few sources — namely Columbia Multisport Club, Fourth Ward Councilman Jerry Wade and Johnson, who has emerged as the local authority concerning bike safety and its related laws.
The Money Trail To understand where the money comes from and how it snakes through the promotion and education side of GetAbout, one must follow the billing process as it starts with PedNet. The coalition receives the most funding and takes on the largest scope of projects of the non-infrastructure subcontractors. The process starts with Kim March. As director of operations for PedNet, as well has an independently contracted financial consultant, March has always managed the nonprofit group’s finances as a subcontractor. On Dec. 16, 2007, March also began overseeing PedNet’s contracts and projects within the scope of PedNet’s work for GetAbout. Her new duties came as PedNet’s Ian Thomas stepped away from executive director duties that dealt with GetAbout. Thomas continues as executive director for PedNet outside of the scope of the GetAbout program. To comply with a contractual agreement, Thomas then moved out of the PedNet office, which is located in the county-owned GetAbout Columbia Building at 101 N. Seventh St. The office space and utilities — which total $308,000 over four years for the whole building — were provided for free for PedNet’s staff to share with GetAbout staffers as long as they were working on projects relevant to GetAbout. Thomas now has an office in the YouZeum at 608 Cherry St., though other PedNet staff members still have desks and workspace in the GetAbout office. Thomas says the federal grant money was accompanied by an exceptionally large amount of paperwork, filing and administrative oversight work. “I stopped being the main point of contact for [GetAbout],” he says. “It revolved very heavily around admin details, working plans and bureaucracy work, and wasn’t the best use of my time. And Kim was more experienced with that stuff anyway.” Thomas says that he is now able to devote more time to other PedNet projects while still helping out with GetAboutspecific projects when he is needed.
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The GetAbout Effect
After stepping down, Thomas continued to log hours billable to the GetAbout program, working on individual projects under the project assistant rate of $15 per hour. (He was previously paid at the rate of $24 per hour by GetAbout when he was working under the executive director title.) Thomas’ hours varied month to month, peaking at 92 hours in April 2008, but have since decreased. Thomas says he billed for hours spent preparing, coordinating and promoting the Spring Walking School Bus program and Bike, Walk & Wheel Week in early May 2008. According to PedNet’s most recently filed invoice in June 2009, Thomas worked 13 hours in June that he billed to GetAbout. As a financial consultant, Kim March is paid by a subcontract with PedNet at her hourly consultant rate of $40 per hour to take primary responsibility for overseeing administrative, financial and human resources duties, and to serve as the primary point of contact for GetAbout’s contract management, according to her contract. March says this rate pays for her work and the work of her staff, which equals 1.5 fulltime equivalents. Though PedNet is not her only client, it is her largest client. Because March is paid through a subcontract rather than PedNet’s payroll, PedNet can charge her services to GetAbout at actual cost without having to apply the fixed overhead, fringe or profit-percentage limits that PedNet is contractually tied to, says Sarah Talbert, senior budget analyst for the Columbia Public Works Department. March submits a monthly invoice for her GetAbout work to PedNet. March, who also manages PedNet’s invoices, gathers employee hours of billable work to the GetAbout program and compiles them in an invoice that she sends to Vangel. Then Vangel compiles the invoices of all of the subcontractors and forwards them to the Columbia Public Works Department along with Vangel’s own invoice of billable work to GetAbout. The Public Works Department then reviews each invoice, makes necessary changes — even denying some reimbursement for services outside the
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Studies showing increased bike and pedestrian traffic from 2008 to 2009 equate to roughly six more bicyclists and 12 more pedestrians at designated intersections.
agreed-upon scope of the project — and sends a check to Vangel that pays the firm for approved services. The Public Works Department then sends copies of the payment to Vangel and the invoices to the Missouri Department of Transportation, which ultimately holds the $22.5 million in Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program funds that the Federal Highway Administration issued to Columbia. MoDOT then reviews the materials sent and reimburses the Public Works Department. Meanwhile, Vangel pays PedNet and the other subcontractors. PedNet pays
March, and the cycle is complete. The detailed payment cycle and oversight is time-consuming but necessary, Thomas concedes. “I suppose that is the way it needs to be, because that’s public money,” he says. “You can’t just throw that around without making sure it’s spent correctly.” The Missouri Department of Transportation is currently conducting a scheduled mid-point audit of the program. Findings of the audit, which started in July, had not been released by the time this issue of Inside Columbia’s
The GetAbout Effect
CEO went to press. Auditors will perform a second, comprehensive audit after the program’s funding ends in October 2010.
The Bottom Line Though GetAbout is now almost threefourths of the way through the four-year funding, the results of the grant are, at best, only halfway to fruition. Phase 2 of the non-infrastructure projects started only months ago; the bulk of the
construction projects will soon be breaking ground, and research that measures the impact of GetAbout’s communication efforts are just beginning to come out. The rules of the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program require each of the four communities to conduct ongoing studies gauging the effectiveness of their campaigns. After conducting 400 telephone surveys in December 2007, Phillips & Associates Inc., a subcontractor of Vangel, followed up with a second telephone survey in 2008. Because the surveys sampled only 400 Columbia residents, the
data for each survey has a margin of error of 5 percent, which means results could vary by as much as 5 percentage points either way. A larger survey sample would have achieved a lower margin of error to use in extrapolating the results to the Columbia population. GetAbout has circulated some survey results that trumpet key increases between 2007 and 2008 in the numbers of Columbians walking and biking to work or school. Although the numbers seem promising, the results are measured in small percentages that render them statistically
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The GetAbout Effect
Columbia’s War Of Wheels Gina Overshiner and her son, Max, peddle out of the Office Depot parking lot and make a left turn into the rightmost westbound lane of Broadway. It’s 3:45 p.m. and they are heading over to pick up Overshiner’s 9-year-old daughter, Annarose, at piano lessons after Max’s day at Lee Elementary School. They ride every day to and from school, but they don’t always take this route. They like to mix it up and often ride down Cherry Street, then through the tunnels near Flat Branch Park. But 11-year-old Max is a strong rider and likes taking the most direct routes, even through some of the more heavily trafficked streets in town. Overshiner rides almost 5,000 miles a year; her kids ride a couple thousand. As they climb the hill on Broadway toward Garth Avenue, a white Infiniti comes up behind them and the driver begins chirping the horn. The bicyclists are traveling 10 miles per hour — Overshiner takes note of her speed when it flashes up on the school-zone speed notifier on her right. That’s 10 miles per hour under the speed limit; slow, but the left lane has only light traffic — room to pass. As they come through the intersection at Garth Avenue, in front of the School of Metaphysics, the driver switches to the left lane. The Infiniti passes so closely to Overshiner that she could have touched the side of the car with her hand. The driver then pulls back into the right lane. He slams on his brakes. Overshiner and her son brake, too, nearly running into the back of the car. The driver then proceeds to drive so slowly that Overshiner and her son must ride their brakes down the hill to keep a safe distance. At McBaine Avenue, he pulls off and disappears into traffic, but Overshiner takes down the license plate number and calls the Columbia Police Department to report the incident. That was the story Overshiner told on June 15 during the opportunity for public comment on Council Bill 151-09 — the bike harassment ordinance. Her story is about safety. It is about respect. And it is about a conflict of both culture and ownership on Columbia’s roadways. Whether positively or negatively, her story struck a chord that has reverberated through this town’s polarized, uninhibited and faceless squawk boxes — radio shows, newspaper call-in forums and online comment fields of both local newspapers. In these platforms, there are two sides — cars and no-cars. But, odds are that most people come down somewhere in between. Most are like Kim Wischmeyer. He stands at the podium in front of the City Council. He wears a moustache and wire-rimmed glasses with wide lenses. His blue T-shirt sports a pen in the front left breast pocket. Wischmeyer was the first to speak during the public comment on the bike harassment ordinance. He says he’s concerned that issuing a driver a $1,000 ticket because he used a car horn around a bicyclist would be excessive if he was just trying to catch the attention of a child who was about to walk into the street. That’s how Wischmeyer understands the ordinance would work. Perhaps the driver is not trying to scare the bicyclist. He asks, “Am I understanding that correctly?” In that example, Wischmeyer is not correct. According to City
vs.
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Counselor Fred Boeckmann, the ordinance pertains to drivers trying to intentionally frighten or disturb a bicyclist. But Wischmeyer’s question resounds from the biggest source of fuel driving the conflict between the cars and the no-cars groups — confusion and lack of clarity. Individual questions are answered between individuals, but it’s unclear whose responsibility it is to pacify and explain everything to the masses. It doesn’t fall under any group’s particular list of projects, so the fuel is left to either fizzle or fester. Two months later, the conflict persists. About a hundred people meet in Meeting Rooms A and B in the ARC at 1701 W. Ash St. for a discussion forum hosted by the Columbia Multisport Club — a local fitness and triathlon club. Meeting organizers want to air out the differences between the cars and the no-cars. GetAbout’s “Bike nice. Drive nice.” stickers aren’t cutting it. Bicyclists make up a heavy majority of the audience, but a few take the opportunity to voice some of their own concerns to a panel of recreational bikers, representatives from the police departments and PedNet’s Robert Johnson about the oft-heard concerns: bicyclists on two-lane country roads, drivers’ ability to honk at bicyclists, and bicyclists who don’t obey traffic laws. It was a chance for discourse beyond the facelessness of call-ins and Internet comment forums. Emotions flared briefly at times, but conversations generally stayed civil. “We wanted to send a message that ‘hey, we want to listen. We want to make things better. We want to reach cyclists and tell them to do the easy things like follow traffic laws,’ ” says Mackenzie Rickman, president of Columbia Multisport Club. “But we also wanted to hear from the drivers and about their problems.” She says that the club wanted to host the discussion before the other nonmotorized interest groups. “We didn’t want to sit around and let someone else control the tone or the message we wanted to get across … We thought it was important to separate ourselves from PedNet and GetAbout, because they represent the commuter cyclists. We are the ones who — quote — wear spandex and don’t need to be out there.” Nearly an hour after the forum officially concludes several participants continue in conversation. Stan Sapp, one of three drivers who spoke at the forum about frustrations with bicyclists on the road, stands talking with a group of biking enthusiasts who argued with him an hour earlier. The bicyclists say they get typecast with “the crazy college students” who tend to not follow the traffic laws. Sapp and others at the forum agree that while opening a dialogue is helpful for addressing concerns, its effects are limited based on who comes out. “The people who were here weren’t the people who needed to have this conversation,” Sapp says. The forum was held a week before the Columbia City Council voted 4-2 against Fourth Ward Councilman Jerry Wade’s proposal to suspend the harassment ordinance. The council later voted in support of Wade’s motion to assemble a task force that would study the issue and recommend how to improve the ordinance before amending it to include other forms of nonmotorized transportation.
The GetAbout Effect
LOCAL MARKETS OF INVESTMENT
Each of the four locales that received $22.5 million NTPP grants represents different community archetypes. The 2010 report may ultimately give insight into what types of communities yield the highest return on nonmotorized transportation infrastructure. Numbers are based on the 2006 NTPP interim report to U.S. Congress
COLUMBIA
MARIN COUNTY
MINNEAPOLIS
SHEBOYGAN COUNTY
Geographic area (sq. mi)
53
121.4*
55
514
Population
99,174
248,794
377,392
114,561
Population Density
1592.8
1920
6970.3
219.3
% Enrolled in College or Graduate School
26.2
5.9
11.3
4.2
Median Age
26.8
41.3
31.2
36.8
Median Household Income
$63,273
$886,286
$45,952
$55,951
Mean Travel Time to Work
15.3 min.
32.3 min.
21.7 min.
16.9 min.
*All Marin area and population numbers refer to the eastern urbanized city-center corridor
insignificant, given the margin of error. The Phillips & Associates surveys found that 6 percent of respondents (24 people) reported walking to work or school in 2007. That percentage increased to 10 percent (40 people) in 2008. The same study reported 3.4 percent of respondents (fewer than 14 people) biked to work or school in 2007; the percentage of bicycle commuters rose to 8.7 percent (35 people) in the 2008 survey. The two surveys show a statistically significant increase in Columbians’ awareness of the GetAbout program — from 66 percent of respondents in 2007 to 75 percent in 2008. The survey statistics were published in the March 25, 2009, Progress Report. Other impact studies include the work of Steve Sayers, an assistant professor who studies exercise science in the Physical Therapy Department at the University of Missouri School of Health Professions. As part of his subcontracted research through Alta Planning, also a subcontractor of Vangel, Sayers ran various usage counts beginning in 2007 to track bike and pedestrian traffic. One of the studies designed to calculate morning commute numbers showed a 47.8
percent increase in bicycle traffic and a 48.5 percent increase in pedestrian traffic at four intersections between 2008 and 2009 after only small changes between 2007 and 2008. These results equate to roughly six more bicyclists and 12 more pedestrians daily at each of the four intersections during the summer morning commute hour. The data collection period lasted from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. Monday through Friday for a one-week period in July each year and covered the same four intersections: Stewart Road and Providence Road, Broadway and Providence Road, Broadway and College Avenue, and University Avenue and College Avenue. Sayers’ data has not yet been released publicly.
Construction Season Is Coming While the city might not have much to show off from the physical infrastructure side of the GetAbout project so far, Columbia will be rolling in bike- and pedestrian-friendly construction projects come 2010, according to GetAbout’s Curtis. Those projects will even spill into 2011, he says. As for the future of the GetAbout
program, Congress is currently looking at legislation to extend the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program for another 18 months, which Curtis thinks is a likely possibility. “Portland took 15 years to build its system,” he says. “A five-year flash is probably just not getting enough data to measure [what the program intended].” The impact of the GetAbout Columbia program may still be years down the road for local businesses. As an investment in infrastructure capital, the $22.5 million grant seems more likely to mature slowly and return over the next decade, rather than yield immediate results. Other factors, however, such as citizen unrest over use of federal money, harassment ordinances and other share-the-road issues may stunt the growth of Columbia’s nonmotorized transportation initiative before that happens. As the MoDOT mid-point audit report looms, so too does GetAbout Columbia’s future. If GetAbout hopes to transform Columbia into the Portland of the Midwest, it has a town full of Show-Me Missourians to convince.
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Band of Brothers
Meet Brock & Brant Bukowsky. These mavericks have taken the mortgage loan business by storm with their unconventional ideas and unbridled enthusiasm. Their passion for their customers and their employees is leading the way to a revolution in workplace culture. by Kathy Casteel photos by L.G. Patterson
t
he nondescript building in a quiet south Columbia strip mall gives no hint of the financial giant within. Inside, a labyrinth of cubicles hums with activity as hundreds of workers guide military veterans through the process of securing a home mortgage. This is the VA Mortgage Center, a Columbia-based mortgage broker with a homegrown success story that has rocketed to the national stage. In just seven years, the VAMC has climbed to the top of the U.S. financial services industry, going from three employees brokering homebuyer loans in 2002 to the leading mortgage lender for U.S. military veterans and active-duty personnel. Today’s VAMC operates in all 50 states with a staff of more than 250 working out of the Columbia headquarters and offices in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. The online loan company processes about 450 loans a month through its Web site, says CEO Nate Long, and has helped more than 12,000 become homebuyers. Tabbed by Inc. magazine in 2007 as one of the fastestgrowing companies in the country, the company has posted a three-year revenue growth rate since 2005 that outperforms the industry benchmark by 15 to 1. Last year’s 375 percent growth rate landed it on another prestigious Inc. list in 2009: No. 35 among all U.S. financial services businesses in the Inc. 5000.
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The brainchild of Brock and Brant Bukowsky, the VAMC is making waves on another front these days. The Bukowsky brothers are passionate about the people they work with and work hard to create a company culture where everyone enjoys coming to work and feels like family, says a former employee who worked for the brothers in her college days. “Sort of a work hard, play hard type of idea. They always go above and beyond to make sure that employees know how much they are appreciated.” Their famously casual dress code (“You’re basically encouraged to show up in pajamas and walk around barefoot all day if you feel like it,” says a happy loan officer) and other employee perks have kept the VAMC workforce growing with high morale and low turnover. At VAMC, there is such a thing as a free lunch — every Monday, for every employee. There’s also a lot of chocolate, gifts and other stress-buster amenities: Friday massages, discount memberships at Wilson’s Fitness, flu shots, a golf tournament, Bowling Day, holiday parties, family picnics, lunch runners, free vending machines and free soda fountain, chocolate-covered strawberries on Valentine’s Day and chocolate bunnies on Easter, basketball tickets, concert trips, sports teams, birthday cakes, flowers, dinners and contest prizes. And just in case the loan officers and loan processors have any doubt
Brock & Brant Bukowsky
Brock Bukowsky: “It’s about maximizing talent.” Brock Bukowsky’s training in education gave him an essential takeaway he still uses in business. He bases his leadership philosophy on wisdom he gleaned as a student teacher of math at Rock Bridge High School more than a decade ago. “Everyone learns differently,” says the 35-year-old co-founder of VA Mortgage Center. “Everyone has a different learning style. You have to recognize your people’s talents. We look for hardworking people with character and integrity — I don’t care if their experience is in selling mortgages or selling flowers — and then put them where they work best.” Brock teamed up with his younger brother Brant, a fellow education student at MU, in the late ‘90s to launch a series of successful startup firms before the pair founded the VA Mortgage Center in late 2002. Brock focused on operations and Brant covered marketing. “I pretty much rode on Brant’s coattails,” he says. As the business grew, Brock realized he “couldn’t do everything,” he says. Company CEO Nate Long and chief operating officer Leigh Ann Wanserski now see to the daily operations of the company. “They’re better at that stuff than I am,” he says. “I’ve learned to delegate. I’m most effective looking at the big picture, tweaking and throwing out ideas. What drives me is the idea that we can all feed off each other and get better.” The company has “a really solid foundation,” he says. “There’s a realization that we could use this company to serve a greater good, so the priority is people.” Brock is passionate about service — to his customers, his coworkers, his family and God. “The last three or four years, I’ve come to realize it’s not about me,” he says. “I’m trying to take my focus off myself and instead put God as the center of my life.” He pairs service with responsibility. He’s a family man — wife Tammy taught at Midway Heights Elementary School for 12 years before opting to stay home with Aidan, 4, Chloe, 3, and Ainsley, 1. To decompress, he runs and listens to spiritual messages on his iPod. Success has brought greater responsibilities to those he serves, with less worry about the competition. “Our size and our expertise make it difficult to compete with us in this arena and our customers know that,” he says. This confidence has given him the freedom to tinker with the workplace culture to maximize employee talents. “I’ve been focused on fixing problems — a negative,” he says. “Now I’m trying to refocus to look at the positives. Let’s build on what we’re doing that’s good. Profits are great — we do have to keep that to maintain the business that lots of people are depending on — but that’s not the only measure of success,” he says. “I ask myself, ‘What does God think is successful?’ “We’re going for a change of heart in our actions and our service. We’re not just focused on the bottom line,” he says. “It feels better than it’s ever felt.”
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how much they are appreciated, the Bukowskys celebrate special appreciation weeks, too. The job of securing Veterans Affairs-backed loans is no walk in the park, the brothers maintain. It’s a fastpaced, high-pressure environment for people working on commission. There are long days — most employees put in 45- to 60-hour weeks — and they are expected to produce. The workload is ever expanding and the company is still hiring to keep up with demand. “I think what they do is stressful,” says Brant Bukowsky. “They work hard, and we appreciate it. We’re trying to provide people with an opportunity. It’s not ‘here’s a job’; it’s ‘here’s an opportunity.’ And that works out to what is best for the customer.”
That philosophy shapes the Bukowsky brothers’ business sense. “We set out to build a great team,” Brant says. “We play to their strengths and don’t want anyone to burn out. We’re finding leadership at every level.” Matt Wanserski, VAMC’s director of secondary marketing, has seen this philosophy in action for the past five years. “They have built a culture of people who sincerely care about their co-workers and serving our clients,” Wanserski says. “By building a hard-working but relaxed atmosphere, they have developed an environment where people enjoy coming to work each day and at the same time set high standards for the work that is done, and also how we treat each other and our clients while at work. Brock and Brant are two of the most generous and unselfish people I have met. They care about each employee as an individual and that is evident in the culture of the company.” The brothers are committed to the greater goal of giving rather than receiving, says Brock Bukowsky. VAMC is a 2008 Pacesetter company in the United Way and many staff members are volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters. Employees fund the VAMC’s Military Education Scholarship Program that awards five $1,500 scholarships twice a year. “Even though Brock and Brant are both very successful, they are constantly in the office, working as hard as any employee,” says loan specialist Alberto Barba, who calls this “true leading by example. They are very adamant about giving back to your community. They constantly remind their fellow employees to give back with not just monetary donations but time as well. We have a great family of co-workers here and I believe that is a testament from management … it most certainly trickles down throughout the office.”
The accolades come from every corner of the company, but praise and compliments are not enough to satisfy Brock Bukowsky. He wants to take the company culture to the next level. “Our niche has done well — serving those who have served our nation,” Brock says. “A big piece of our company culture has been to embrace change, and we want to continuously improve.” Focusing on the whole person is one way Brock hopes to effect further changes in the VAMC company culture. Staff members are encouraged to form small groups that meet outside of office hours to discuss concerns and values as they
Brant Bukowsky: “We have such a good team.”
“We have a great family of co-workers here and I believe that is a testament from management … it most certainly trickles down throughout the office.” ~VAMC loan specialist Alberto Barba relate to their personal, family and business lives. Through these voluntary groups, co-workers find confidantes who offer support and encouragement. “What goes on in those meetings stays in those meetings,” Brock says. “We want everyone to feel they are free to discuss anything. There’s no pressure — it’s an open forum. And in these small-group environs, they’ve all got each other’s back.” It’s a chance for friendship outside the confines of the office that many at VAMC appreciate. “It’s just great getting to know your fellow employees on a personal level and talk about things other than work,” says mortgage specialist Ben Choi. Loan specialist Patrick Cox was an early convert to the small groups. “Brock, myself and a couple of other employees have been meeting together for about a year to talk about life, struggles, etc., and it’s been a huge benefit to us all,” Cox says. “Seeing this, he wants everyone in the office to have this opportunity to be involved with a small group to walk through life with: the good and the bad.” Brock has also offered a series of co-worker book studies, open to all on a voluntary basis; about 20 employees have participated, with maybe a dozen showing up on any given Friday morning. So far, the group has delved into Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey.
The intimate nature of the small discussion groups pays big dividends in the corporate realm as well, says longtime colleague Nate Long. “We talk a lot about incorporating values — into our personal lives and our work lives,” Long says. “It’s a sounding board to try out ideas and bounce off other’s views. We start talking about various types of situations and the best way to treat a person. These perceptions spill over into every facet of life. You start looking at everything from a values perspective instead of a profit perspective.” And that, says Long, is the secret to the success of the Bukowskys and the VA Mortgage Center: “If you’re in a loving and caring group, it rubs off on everyone. The group is stronger than the individual. It works for us and I can see it working for lots of companies.”
Even if all of Brant Bukowsky’s entrepreneurial ideas had flopped, the businessman had a backup plan. “I’d be teaching,” he says. The 33-year-old has a degree in elementary education from the University of Missouri; he completed his student teaching at Midway Heights Elementary School. “I loved it.” The Bukowsky brothers’ parents were both educators, but they encouraged their sons to exercise their business talents as well. “Mom and Dad always encouraged us,” he says. “When we were teenagers, we used to put on baseball card shows — the whole family. It was Dad’s idea.” The family entrepreneurial spirit took hold with the pair and the brothers have been working together most of their lives. Both Brant and Brock were education majors at MU when they launched their first venture, ShowMeTickets.com, in the late ‘90s. They followed with several Web-based businesses, including LakeRentals.com and the VA Mortgage Center in 2002. The youngest Bukowsky brother, 32-year-old Bryce, works in computer technology at Shelter Insurance Cos. in Columbia. Brant chuckles at the memory of his and brother Brock’s inclusion as two of Inside Columbia’s “Smartest People in Columbia” last spring. “You didn’t get the smartest Bukowsky with that list,” he says with a smile. “That would be Bryce.” The chemistry between Brant and Brock has made for a successful working formula, Brant says. “We don’t always see eye to eye, and that’s beneficial,” he says. “But we’re both willing to take risks.” He looks back at the earlier, heady days of building various business ventures and marketing those ideas as exciting but stressful. “It was exciting and fun building something,” he says. “I’d work 12- to 16-hour days. I didn’t have a lot of other responsibilities.” As the Bukowskys fine-tuned their corporate structure and folded Brant’s Plus 1 Marketing operation into a division of the VA Mortgage Center, Brant says he learned to delegate, handing off to others some responsibilities “that we’re not so good at.” Brant’s serial startup penchant has given way to an emphasis on marketing the brothers’ core business: the VA Mortgage Center. “New ideas are fun,” he says. “It’s exciting to look at new ventures, but that’s no longer the focus. We owe it to the people who work for us to concentrate on and strengthen our core business.” He looks to “angel investing” as a way to continue dabbling in startups as a hobby. “We can help provide advice and ideas to small and growing companies without the daily work of operations, and get equity in companies that have large growth potential. We’re open to anything.” An avid Mizzou Tigers sports fan and tailgater, Brant fills his less-stressful hours with triathlons, traveling and time with his family, which includes wife Jennifer, an attorney in the Boone County Public Defender’s Office (“She’s another person who’s smarter than me”), and his sons, 2-year-old Blake and infant Gus. Sometimes, it’s time alone that yields the most profitable rewards. “I may go out and have lunch alone so I can think,” he says. “That’s when the big ideas come.”
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The Fall & Rise Of ike Alden How The CEO Of Mizzou Athletics Resurrected His Program And His Career
by BRIAN HEFFERNAN photos by L.G. Patterson Fall 2009
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Some acronyms need no explanation. CEO … CFO … GM: These are the job titles of those who get the credit — and the blame — for a company’s fortunes. At the University of Missouri, that high-profile acronym is AD. During Mike Alden’s bumpy 11-year tenure as MU’s athletic director, the department’s operating budget has grown to more than 3½ times the $13.7 million he started with in 1998. Posting an average annual growth rate of 12 percent, the size of the operating budget has risen from 11th in the Big 12 Conference in the 1998 fiscal year — just ahead of Baylor University — to sixth place in the 2009 fiscal year, trailing border rival University of Kansas. On Aug. 6, as Alden prepared for another year of collegiate sports seasons funded with a $50 million annual budget, he received the affirmation he’d worked for so doggedly: a five-year contract extension through June 2017. Since that tumultuous time, Alden’s prospects — and those of Mizzou Athletics — have been looking up. These days, when Alden speaks of the growth of the Athletic Department, he talks about doing it “the right way.” Recent progress on the field has been as impressive as the department’s financial growth. The 2008-09 season was a record year for several sports under the Mizzou Athletics umbrella. Accomplishments included Top 25 rankings in softball, gymnastics, wrestling, baseball, men’s indoor track and field, football and basketball. This past school year marked the first time that both football and basketball, the school’s only profitable athletic programs, have finished in the Top 25 since 1981-82. Fifteen of Mizzou’s teams qualified for postseason play last year. When the softball team broke a universitywide 12year drought of conference championships in 2008, the feat seemed to open the floodgates. In the past year, MU captured Big 12 Conference championship titles in women’s soccer, softball and men’s basketball, which also advanced to the Elite 8 in the NCAA tournament, and the Big 12 North Conference championship in football. Last March, heavyweight wrestler Mark Ellis won an NCAA championship, two years after the school’s first-ever wrestling champion, Ben Askren, won his second consecutive national crown. Last year’s successes earned Mizzou a designation as one of the premier programs in Division I athletics, according to the National Association of College Directors of Athletics. MU’s 36thplace finish in the Director’s Cup, which measures athletic success among 271 Division I schools, is the highest ranking Mizzou has received since the NACDA began awarding the Cup in 1993.
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Success on the field has also reaped rewards off the field and beyond the campus. The triumphs of the revenueproducing football and men’s basketball teams have helped drive university enrollment to an all-time high for the 200910 school year, adding to an already burgeoning market demographic in Columbia. As an economic driver for Columbia business, college sports cuts across many demographics. In fiscal year 2007, more than 1 million people spent $18.8 million at MU athletic events. A successful athletic department not only attracts tourism money from fans, but also draws press coverage and national attention to the team — and to the city. It is no coincidence that similar or smaller-sized college towns such as South Bend, Ind., Ann Arbor, Mich., and Chapel Hill, N.C., have enjoyed prosperity both on and off the field of play. In a town the size of Columbia, the growth of college athletics and city growth go hand in hand.
Alden is a grinder. The 51-year-old emphasizes small consistent gains, battle by battle, over flashy success and sudden growth. Before entering the world of athletic administration, he was an offensive line coach for his alma mater, the University of Evansville, and the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania in the early ‘80s. Alden knows that the dirty, overlooked work is what produces success. He applies that philosophy to managing the athletic department. “The goal, of course, is that we don’t want to be a dot-com,” he says. The high level of competition and the pressure of a major Division I athletic conference can lead to speculative investments with high-reward risks. A cautionary lesson from the white-hot University of Miami football program of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s comes to mind. “They were building that program based on ‘Hey, we’re going to win quick. People are going to want to buy tickets to come to the games. And then they are going to invest into Hurricane football in the long run,’ ” Alden says. “But they didn’t. So all of a sudden you had this rocket — I mean it was like, national championship, boom, boom, boom. But along with that, there was a brand concern because of offthe-field incidents and lack of academic success.” The days of plenty were followed by leaner times, and without a solid core of investors, Miami’s program nose-dived. Point taken. Alden says that running an athletic program is similar to any other business. “When the stock market is bad, the truly good businesses are the ones that will survive,” he says. And Alden knows something about survival. Hired in 1998 — it was the second time he had applied for the job — he is now entering his 12th year at the helm of Mizzou Athletics. Only two other Missouri ADs have served longer: Don Faurot and Chester Brewer. A native of Chicago, Alden played football at the University of Evansville, a private college in Indiana where he earned two degrees: a Bachelor of Science in marketing and a Bachelor of Arts in education. Later he added a master’s degree in educational administration/supervision from Arizona State University to his résumé. After those assistant coaching stints at Evansville and Penn, he crossed over from the sidelines to
PHOTO BY DAVID BARTLETT
SHOW ME THE MONEY
the front office, serving seven years at Arizona State as assistant athletic director under former Tiger coach Dan Devine. He moved up to associate athletic director at the University of New Mexico for four years, and then became athletic director at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State) in 1996. Two years later, he was named Missouri’s 15th athletic director, a job he said he had dreamed of having ever since his childhood visits to the family farm in Callaway County. Alden arrived in Columbia determined to grow MU’s comparatively small athletics budget while overseeing 20 sports teams. The job would require a business approach. Tim Hickman, chief financial officer for Mizzou Athletics, has witnessed the department’s transformation. Hickman, who started working at MU in 1990 as the director of operations for the Hearnes Center, says the culture of the Athletic Department took on a more business-style approach when Alden was hired. “I think college athletics has changed from a department run by strictly former coaches to a department run much more by a business perspective,” Hickman says. “Being an auxiliary [of the university], by definition means we have to generate our own way. By taking that business approach to it, Mike brought us to a new level.” A large portion of the athletic department’s growth has come from Big 12 Conference revenue, Hickman says. The conference began play in 1996, after the former Big
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University of Missouri Why cash? Athletic Director “Many years ago, the Mike Alden charts the institution said, ‘hey if the the front office, serving seven years at Arizona State as transfer of money Athletic Department is assistant athletic director under former Tiger coach Dan between the university going to director give discounts Devine. moved up to associate athletic at theto and He Mizzou Athletics: faculty and staff, let’s help University of New Mexico for four years, and then became them out,’ ” Alden says. Approximately $2.2 million athletic director at Southwest Texas State University (now “They decided years ago on flow from the University Texas State) in 1996. Two years later, he was named Missouri’s $200,000. It hasn’t changed.” of Missouri’s main general
15th athletic director, a job he said he had dreamed of having operating fund to the Athletic department now ever since his childhood visits to theThe family farm inisCallaway Department. phasing out the $1.5 million County. mortgage from the “Beforearrived I came here, Mizzou determined Alden in Columbia toassistance grow MU’s university. renovated Faurot Field,” he budget while overseeing 20 comparatively small athletics says.teams. “It wasThe a bigjob renovation sports would require“It’s a business approach. the right thing to do,” and Mizzou had to borrow Tim Hickman, chief financial officer for Mizzou Athletics, Alden says. “The university money …the butdepartment’s the Athletic transformation. hasthe witnessed who has helped payHickman, that mortgage Department didn’t have a for many years. We’ve got an started working at MU in 1990 as the director of operations history of fundraising, or economic crisis going on in for the Hearnes Center, says the culture of the Athletic money in the reserve, so the our country, and frankly, on Department took on a more business-style approach when institution said that they our campus. And we think it Alden was hired. would pay off that mortgage should be our responsibility “I think every college athletics from a department payment year for 30 has changed to make our own mortgage runyears.” by strictly former coaches to a department run much more payments.” by a business perspective,” Hickman says. “Being an auxiliary $2.2 million, Aldenwe adds thatto generate our [of Of thethat university], by$1.5 definition means have goes to thatthat mortgage approximately million ownmillion way. By taking business approach to it, $10 Mike brought payment. The Athletic flows from the Athletic us to a new level.” Department alsoof receives Departmentgrowth back tohas thecome main A large portion the athletic department’s $500,000 to cover out-ofcampus, including the tuition from Big 12 Conference revenue, Hickman says. The conference state tuition and other fees of student-athletes through began play in 1996, after the former Big Eight Conference merged for student-athletes. The final $200,000 is granted in cash and goes toward balancing the $50 million budget.
scholarships, parking monies for campus use of the parking lots, and monies paid to the libraries.
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TRIPLE PLAY Mike Alden makes sure you know he is trying to get a point across. The athletic director for the University of Missouri looks into your eyes when he talks to you. He speaks deliberately and repeats your name often. And he speaks in threes. It’s repetition and reinforcement. It’s discipline that applies not just on the field and in the coaching room, but also in the business office. Alden is all about developing mindsets — or redeveloping them. A decade ago, Alden couldn’t rely on winning records and Big 12 championships to provide financial growth for his organization. So he approached it this way: If you are not winning, how do you build your program? His answer — as always — was threefold.
1. Build an academically solid base.
Academic priorities have not always been easy recruiting tools, Alden admits, but “we’ve taken a position that if we are recruiting a student to come to Mizzou, and they don’t want to see that as their No. 1 priority, then we don’t want them … even though the nature of our [education] business is that any teacher wants to take on that challenge.” All 20 of Missouri’s teams have performed well in the Academic Progress Rate, a “report card” based on a formula the NCAA uses to track the progress of each student-athlete toward graduation. The graduation success rate of Mizzou student-athletes who receive their degrees within six years is 71 percent, according to NCAA data. Last year, MU athletes earned numerous academic honors: three were named Academic All-Americans; 11 earned Scholar All-American honors; two were Academic All-District; and 69 earned Academic All-Big 12 accolades. 2. Develop the product — and in the case of collegiate athletics, the product is the quality student-athlete. Alden contends that this concept extends beyond the classroom.
Each is a work in progress, “because we know that if you slowly build that [philosophy], you can coach to that, you can recruit to that.” Student-athlete legal troubles, exemplified most prominently by basketball player Ricky Clemons, who was arrested in 2003 for choking his girlfriend, have shown that developing well-behaved, mature players is sometimes easier to preach than to maintain. Alden says the Clemons affair and other fallout from the Quin Snyder basketball era taught him a valuable lesson about the importance of treating everyone with the same level of consistency. The approach still requires fine-tuning, as evidenced by more recent legal snafus: a string of incidents involving injury or arrests for basketball players, climaxing in the January 2008 brawl outside the Athena nightclub that led to the suspensions of five players and the eventual dismissal of Stefhon Hannah from the team. A few weeks later, new university president Gary Forsee called such events “a setback in terms of image” branding the university and added his support for the coach’s disciplinary actions.
Eight Conference merged with four Texas universities from the disbanded Southwest Conference. Hickman says that by being part of a much more powerful league, the athletic department is able to leverage better television contracts and markets. Additionally, each team in the conference receives revenue whenever a Big 12 team plays in a football bowl game or NCAA basketball championship tournament. Alden wants to secure the revenue stream for future MU sports programs as well. He emphasizes building up reserve funds. “We want to build up our savings accounts so that three athletic directors from Mike Alden, or three chancellors from Brady Deaton, or three coaches from Gary Pinkel — that money is going to be there to help those people,” he says. “You wish that people 30 years ago were thinking like that, but they
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3. Bricks and mortar — results you can see.
“We had to improve our facilities,” Alden says. His predecessor, Joe Castiglione, had started the job of overhauling the athletic facilities. Castiglione’s four-year tenure oversaw the construction of Devine Pavilion (an indoor practice facility), Walton Stadium (for soccer and track and field) and renovations at Faurot Field. When Castiglione left to head up the University of Oklahoma Athletic Department, Alden picked up where Castiglione left off. Since 1998, Mizzou Athletics has averaged almost one improvement per year. The list includes new construction for Mizzou Arena, Turner Field, Green Tennis Center and the Mizzou Aquatics Center, and six facility renovations. Currently, a renovation project is under way at Taylor Stadium, the baseball team’s home field, and Alden maintains a running list of other improvements he’d like to make. Those future projects include an indoor golf facility at MU’s home course, Old Hawthorne, a gymnastics training facility, and renovations at the tennis facilities. He also expects to expand Faurot Field in the next seven years.
just weren’t, so that’s a responsibility we have.” Alden’s most valuable asset to the athletic program may be his ability to raise money and broaden Mizzou Athletics’ solid base of donors. He credits his fundraising success to a penchant for honesty and frankness with people, along with sincerity and a passion for MU. “Our goal and expectation every day is that we will never, ever overpromise and underdeliver,” he says. He says he often sees people in a fundraising capacity who, despite their best intentions, promise more than they can deliver because they need the money. For Alden, the focus stays with solid, attainable goals. Things get out of control when they don’t fall into structure, he notes. The key is sticking to the plan — doing it “the right way.”
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MILESTONES by anita neal harrison
Columbia’s Population Through The Decades Year
Population
1900
5,651
1910
9,662
1920
10,392
1930
14,967
1940
18,399
1950
31,974
The 100,000 Club
1960
36,650
1970
58,512
Columbia’s Latest Headcount Finally Puts Us At 100K. Is This The Beginning Of A Boom, Or Are We Putting Too Much Stock In A Number?
1980
62,061
1990
69,101
2000
84,531
“It’s official,” announces the headline on the Missouri Census Data Center’s home page. “Columbia’s population goes over 100,000.” The milestone has to be one of the most anticipated in Columbia’s history. When the countdown ended with a population figure of 100,733 this summer, the reaction was a resounding cheer that Columbia has made it. But to where, exactly, has the city made it? Is this the land of retail giants, flowing grant dollars and Top 10 lists? Or is all of that a lot of wishful thinking?
Making The Radar There has been much speculation that hitting the 100,000 population mark would bring Columbia to a tipping point and that from here on, the city’s momentum will surge. The assumption
has been that site selection companies and national retail chains use 100,000 as a common cutoff when running database searches of potential sites, which would mean Columbia has been hovering just under their radar; now, this city should pop up in more searches. There’s probably some truth to that, says Mike Brooks, president of Regional Economic Development Inc. “We might make the cut for some national retail chains that before we wouldn’t,” Brooks says, “but from an industrial perspective, that population number probably does not have a major impact. Industrial companies are more interested in labor force characteristics than population.” Angelos Angelou agrees that retailers are the most likely to be impressed. “A lot of retailers want to have a
The city of Columbia, Mo., grew by almost 1,800 people (1.8%) in the year ending July 1, 2008, resulting in a new official estimate of 100,733. Columbia has been experiencing consistent growth over the decade, averaging just less than 2,000 new people per year since the 2000 census. It joins Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and Independence as one of five Missouri cities with more than 100,000 population. Lee’s Summit, with a new current estimate of 84,208 and with growth of 13,490 since 2000, is the next closest to crossing this threshold. From the Missouri Census Data Center
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MILESTONES threshold of 100,000,” says the principal executive officer and founder of Angelou Economics, an economic development and site selection company based in Austin, Texas. “So you will definitely be making the list of retail operations that may not be in your city.” Or maybe not. Adam Epstein, president of Site Analytics Co., a New York City-based
... the numbers retailers look at are a lot more complex than a simple population number ... site selection company that specializes in retail, disagrees with Angelou’s assessment. “I’d love to be able to say that next week the phone on Mayor Darwin Hindman’s desk is going to be ringing with retailers who want to be there with you, but I don’t think this particular milestone is going to have an effect on retailers,” Epstein says. He explains that retailers who are even the slightest bit sophisticated in their site selection techniques will not be making cuts based on total population. “They’ll be looking for people of certain types: 100,000 people with incomes exceeding $50,000, for example, or 20,000 women between the ages of 20 and 59, or the number of children under the age of 10,” he says, adding that even in rough cuts, income and education levels factor into the decision before total population does. According to Epstein, Columbia has many more reasons to celebrate its growth than merely crossing the 100,000 population threshold. A short list: annual growth in the five-mile ring around Columbia has averaged 1.7 percent from 1990 to 2007 (compared to 0.9 percent for Missouri), the median age is 30.8 (compared to 36.6), the percentage of 25-year-olds and up with bachelor’s degrees and graduate degrees is 32.7 and 24.1, respectively (compared to 15.9 and 9) and the percentage of whitecollar workers is 71.4 (compared to 58.3). 58
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“So you already stack up very nicely,” he says. Mark Arend, editor-in-chief of Site Selection magazine, also downplays the importance of total population. “There are an awful lot of variables at play for someone to be able to say that a population milestone makes the difference,” he says. Population is an important variable, however, to labor-intensive companies, particularly nonmanufacturing sectors such as call centers, says Josh Bays, vice president of Site Selection Group, a location advisory firm based in Dallas. “When we go through the siteselection phase, we look at tiers,” Bays says. “Tier 1 is 1 million or more, Tier 2 is half a million to a million, Tier 3 is 250,000 to 500,000, and Tier 4 is 100,000 to 250,000. “For a lot of our companies,” Bays adds, “Tier 3 and Tier 4 is the sweet spot. Cities in those tiers are large enough to have the labor availability but small enough to have low labor costs.” Bays says hitting 100,000 will get Columbia on the dartboard for Tier 3, but then he remembers one small detail that changes everything. “A lot of times, site selection companies look at the metro area, not the city itself,” he says, “because the metro area is usually more representative of the labor force.” That means cities with a metropolitan statistical area, or MSA, population of 100,000 are on the Tier 3 dartboard, not just those with a population of 100,000 for the city proper. Columbia’s MSA, which includes Boone and Howard counties, has been more than 100,000 since 1980; the latest estimate places it at 164,283. “So, yeah, you guys hit that a long time ago,” Bays says. Epstein makes a similar point. “The city limit itself isn’t something retailers will pay much attention to, except for zoning regulations and taxes, but not from the perspective of demographics,” he says. “What retailers are more likely to do is draw a five-mile ring around the site and see who is in that ring. The thinking is it doesn’t matter what city you are from but how close you are to that site.” Fall 2009
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MILESTONES
Some Good News So crossing the 100,000 threshold might not gain Columbia much more attention from industry and retail, but there are still at least two ways the new 100,000 could garner attention for the city. The first is in “Best Of ” lists. “One hundred thousand is a number that seems to be important in the rankings of communities across the country,” Brooks says. An online search confirms this claim. A few lists and sites that use a population of 100,000 as a ranking criteria are U.S. News and World Report’s “The Best Places To Live/Find a Job/Retire” lists, CNN, Next Generation Consulting and the infoplease.com reference Web site. The other benefit 100,000 could bring to Columbia is government dollars. The U.S. Census Bureau often uses 100,000 as a cutoff in its data analysis. “It might make us eligible for more government grants, funding, etc.,” says Don Laird, president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.
Meeting Our New Neighbors One way to explore the effects of the 100,000 mark is to look at other cities that reached that milestone a few years back and see what has happened there. Billings, Mont., crossed the 100,000 threshold in 2006. “We had a similar phenomenon in that people really were talking about it,” says Scott Rickard, director of the Center for Applied Economic Research at Montana State University Billings. As for the effects of the population milestone, Rickard says it’s hard to tell. “It’s not like we suddenly have a parade,” he says. “We have been 60
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experiencing growth in recent years, but we have other things going on. I have not had a site selector explicitly mention that 100,000 number, but it is definitely a possibility.” Norman, Okla., crossed the 100,000 threshold in 2003. Things were a little different in the home city of the University of Oklahoma, says Don Wood, executive director of the Norman Economic Development Coalition. “There’s not this drive in the community to reach a certain benchmark or grow to a certain level,” he says. “That 100,000 mark came and went without a whole lot of fanfare.” Wood says he doubts reaching 100,000 opens any floodgates of opportunity. “I think the numbers retailers look at are a lot more complex than a simple population number,” he says, echoing Epstein. Interestingly, Billings is like Columbia in that both cities are the urban cores of their MSAs (and both of their MSAs are between 150,000 and 175,000 residents); Norman, a Big 12 college town, is part of the larger Oklahoma City MSA, which is at 1.2 million population.
Taking Advantage Of This Moment Crossing into the land of “Big Cities of 100,000 or More” might not bring a torrent of new business to Columbia, but it does bring opportunities. Angelou recommends the Columbia Chamber of Commerce and/or REDI use the milestone as an excuse for an e-mail campaign to site selectors, as well as in communications to targeted industries, and he suggests sending a press release to Business Wire. Rickard suggests looking for sites that use 100,000 as a cutoff and making them aware of Columbia’s new status. Laird, meanwhile, sees this as a chance for Columbia to be optimistic and grateful. “I don’t look at it as population growth; I look at it as opportunity,” he says. “I hope people see this as an indication of opportunities here. We’re continuing to grow, and this is a good place not only to start a business but also to move a business. Columbia is very fortunate, and I anticipate it’s going to continue.” Fall 2009
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INVENTIONS
A Bull Market
Peter Sutovsky Finds Fertile Opportunities In Research by SANDY SELBY photos by L.G. PATTERSON
T
he romantic bull-meets-cow story is all but forgotten in these days when even modest-sized cattle operations choose breeding by artificial insemination. AI is big business in agriculture, and any new technology that makes it more efficient and effective has enormous profit potential. Peter Sutovsky, a researcher at the University of Missouri, is developing a new technique that could help cattle and
swine producers determine which bulls and boars are most fertile and boost the success rate of AI procedures. Sutovsky is an associate professor in the Division of Animal Sciences in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources; he also holds an appointment with the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health in the MU School of
Medicine. He is in demand as a speaker at scholarly symposia but is also adept at translating mind-boggling science into language someone decades removed from freshman biology class can understand. He speaks excitedly about several projects, including a forensic kit that can quickly detect the presence of sperm on a piece of evidence or a rape-kit
swab. That project, which was funded by a federal grant from the National Institute of Justice, is a cooperative effort between Sutovsky’s lab and PTC Corp. in Columbia. It is currently in the prototype development phase. When the new test kit reaches the market, it will allow law enforcement officers and lab technicians to get valuable information in minutes that now takes hours to obtain. His lab is using a similar type of approach to test fertility in livestock, hoping to make obsolete the current trialand-error approach that can be costly for livestock producers. “In the case of a young yearling bull, this bull has to be tested for fertility essentially by breeding,” Sutovsky says. “That takes three or four years until there are enough artificial insemination cycles done so the breeders can actually evaluate the fertility based on the number of calves born and the percentage of pregnancies and live births after AI from that animal. Obviously, after three or four years of feeding this expensive, big animal, you
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may end up with something that is really performing poorly and basically should have gone to burgers after that first year.” He laughs, and adds, “so to speak.” Sutovsky is developing technology that can quickly sort out good sperm from bad. “Just looking at sperm under a microscope is not good enough,” he says, then demonstrates by showing a microscopically enhanced photo of sperm cells — all looking like identical, longtailed tadpoles. “In this example, you would think all these cells are perfectly normal. But we found proteins that are attached to the surface of either good or bad sperm, so you can look for those molecules.” Once he had identified the proteins that attached themselves to the sperm duds, Sutovsky set about finding a way to magnetize them. Culling out the bad sperm from the good could be as simple and as astounding as holding a strong magnet to the bottom of the test tube. “You can literally take the tube with the magnet on the bottom and just decant it and those particles with the bad sperm will just stay there,” he says. In a practical application, this technology could revolutionize the AI industry by making every vial of semen completely viable. Sutovsky hopes what he’s doing in the lab today can be replicated in the near future with an easyto-use kit that could assist AI specialists or even farmers in the field. Getting the science from the lab to the market could still be a few years away, but Sutovsky is mulling the options. “There are basically two possibilities,” he says. “One is to manufacture this through a company I have established. It doesn’t have any employees as of now but it’s basically established in the case we decide to go that route. The company would exist here in Columbia and manufacture this. We cooperate with a company in Connecticut that manufactures the [magnetic] particles for us.” The other option would be to sell the technology to a major AI-supply company that would then manufacture and market the product. Sutovsky grew up in what is now Slovakia but was then part of Czechoslovakia. He came to the United States in 1994, after completing his
Peter Sutovsky uses this small but powerful magnet to demonstrate the new technique he has developed in his research on livestock fertility. master’s and doctorate degrees in Europe. His plan was to stay in the United States for just a couple of years, but a postdoc stint at the University of Wisconsin led to a staff scientist job at the University of Oregon and eventually to a faculty position at the University of Missouri. Next up for Sutovsky’s lab is work on a potential contraceptive vaccine that he describes as “almost a perfect contraceptive. No hormone treatments.” None of Sutovsky’s research would be possible without funding, “without people taking some risks and actually granting us the funds to do this work,” he says, and that’s something he keeps in mind on every project. “We work hard to get funding and when we get it, we work hard to achieve the goal.” In addition to the funding he’s receiving from the National Institute of Justice for the sperm detection technology (“You would never think you could get a grant for biological research from the National Institute of Justice, but you can,” he says), he has also won grants from the state of Missouri’s Life Science Trust Fund, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health. Some of his research projects are performed in concert with researchers from the School of Medicine. The National Association of Animal Breeders, which coincidentally has its offices here in Columbia, is also a strong supporter of Sutovsky’s efforts. “I’m co-appointed with the OB/GYN Department. I think what many people in Columbia may not know is that Columbia has one of the most active and largest reproductive biology groups in the U.S. and possibly worldwide,” he says. “We have more than 30 professors here on campus with their labs working on various aspects of the reproductive process. Some of these faculty, including myself, are in part supported by a state-funded program called Food for the 21st Century.” Sutovsky says his work with the different funding agencies has spurred his interest in the business side of research. “Learning how technology development is done, how technologies are managed, all the licensing … it’s a whole new dimension of the faculty experience,” he says. “It’s not all in the lab.” Fall 2009
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DIVIDENDS
mid-mo news
Regional News Round-Up nnn
Jefferson City
This fall, Scholastic Inc., the global children’s publishing, education and media company, will open a student-staffed, seasonal call center at Lincoln University. The temporary center, which will handle orders for Scholastic Book Clubs during this peak demand period, will be Scholastic’s first call center located on a college campus. “This venture will further our investment in the Jefferson City community through a creative working environment that supports education and the development of professional skills,” says Steve Marble, Scholastic’s vice president of customer service, who has worked with Ron Williams, vice president of Scholastic employee services in Jefferson City, in developing the project. This partnership with Lincoln will provide job opportunities to a dozen students during a challenging job market. To ensure that students receive quality training, mentoring and professional development skills, Scholastic has assigned one seasonal supervisor to work with the Lincoln University student employees. With its close proximity to classrooms and residence halls, the center will allow students to travel safely and easily to and from the site, and it will offer flexible hours to accommodate students’ schedules.
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Fulton
Both Westminster College and William Woods University welcomed a record number of new students to campus this fall. William Woods enrolled 335 new students, bringing the university’s total enrollment to nearly 3,800. The overall enrollment has more than quintupled in the past 19 years. In 1990, before WWU added undergraduate and graduate programs for working adults, 713 students attended William Woods. Westminster College begins the new academic year with its 10th straight year of record enrollment and the college’s largest recorded student population: 1,080. This represents an increase in enrollment of 9.1 percent over last year. This year’s student population hails from 28 states and 66 different countries.
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Moberly
A new Lowe’s store is under way at the southeast quadrant of U.S. 24 and U.S. 63 in Moberly. The new store is expected to open in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2009. The home improvement store will have 66,000 square feet of retail sales space. An additional 22,600-square-foot garden center will offer a selection of flowers, bushes, trees and garden supplies. According to Lowe’s officials, a store of this size represents an average investment in the community of approximately $12 million and creates up to 120 new jobs.
Boonville
A new Walmart store opened in Boonville in August, bringing approximately 140 new jobs and an increase in tax revenue to the area’s economy. In recent months, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has taken steps to refresh its stores, merchandising and customer experience. The improvements have all come together in the company’s newest stores, such as the Boonville Walmart. The new Walmart features wide aisles, enhanced service and a more convenient layout with aligned departments that customers shop most frequently. More than 25 of the store’s associates have worked at Walmart for more than 10 years, including six associates who have worked at the Boonville store since its original opening in 1984.
DIVIDENDS
The Meal Deal How To Impress At A
Business Lunch by ANITA NEAL HARRISON
A business lunch has a lot in common with a job interview: Usually, someone at the meeting is sizing up someone else. But at a business lunch, the roles can be reversed somewhat, as the person in charge of the lunch might be the one hoping to make a good impression. Take, for example, when a company executive meets with a potential client. The following etiquette tips will help business lunch hosts wow those who meet with them at the table.
Meet with the maître d’ ahead of time. Inform the restaurant of the number of guests expected and be sure to make arrangements for the bill so there is no transaction at the table, Haygood says. Jett advises hosts to let the wait staff know if paperwork will follow the meal to avoid interruptions.
Be thoughtful in restaurant selection. Hosts should never ask guests where to eat, says Leslie G. Jett, an executive chef and certified etiquette consultant at the University of Missouri. “The burden of choice belongs to the host,” he says. Choose a restaurant that has a convenient location for all, a diverse menu and ample parking, and is quiet enough to allow for conversation but not so quiet that guests feel as if the walls are listening. Cindy Haygood, a training director at The Etiquette & Leadership Institute in Georgia and a fellow graduate of Jett’s from The Protocol School of Washington, adds that hosts should choose a restaurant they know well, so they can make menu recommendations. 68
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Be specific when setting a meeting place. “If you want to meet in the lounge at Boone Tavern, say so,” Jett says. “Otherwise, your guest may wait in the lobby assuming you’re late, while you’re in the bar assuming the same about him or her. If you want your guest to go directly to the table you have reserved, say ‘Someone at the restaurant will show you to my table.’ ”
biz lunch
Plan seating. “As the host, you should always let your guests know where to sit,” says Tara Gray, event specialist for The University Club of Missouri. “If it is more formal, you may want to bring place cards.”
Emanate interest. “Take special care to include each person in the conversation using good eye contact, positive body language and good listening skills,” Haygood says. This shows guests that hosts care and treat others well. Prepare conversation topics so there is no lull (this shows thoughtfulness and leadership), and, of course, avoid behaviors that communicate lack of caring, such as arriving late, leaving your cell phone on (even in silent mode) and using poor table manners.
Take charge of introductions. “Always stand to introduce anyone, any time, every time,” Haygood says. The host should introduce everyone using first and last names and should offer supporting information about each person. When introducing two people, hosts should always address first the person with the higher rank or more important role. For example: “Mrs. Potential Client, I would like to introduce to you (notice, not “you to”) Mr. Right-Hand Man, my partner.”
Value small talk. “The person who excels in small talk has the opportunity to make others feel important and to put them at ease,” Haygood says. “Building and developing relationships with people is the key to great business success.” Usually, getting down to business should wait at least until everyone has ordered.
Be gracious in closing. When sending invitations, hosts should include a start and end time. Throughout the meal, hosts set the dining pace, so don’t eat too fast or too slow. When it’s time to end the lunch, hosts give a silent signal by placing their napkins to the left of their plates. “Then, the host would thank the guest/client for joining the company/group and then thank the others,” Haygood says. When the host rises, the others at the table should rise, too. Fall 2009
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Promotional Section
The Columbia Image Awards Reflecting a Beautiful City
On Sept. 10, 2009, a group of Columbia businesses and institutional leaders were honored with Image Awards. This new and prestigious award was given to those whose vision, imagination and dedication have resulted in places and spaces that create a positive and lasting perception of our city.
Development of Distinction Award winners Broadway Shops & VILLAGE OF CHERRY HILL Presented for an outstanding commercial development. Assessment is based on: overall appearance and impact, architectural interest, landscaping, ease of access and navigation of the development and the creative use of materials and features that enhance the environment of the development. Presented by: Inside Columbia magazine
Promotional Section
Inspiration Award winner
Striking Structure
Historic Preservation
Cypher
Columbia Public Library
Hamilton-Brown Place
Columbia Public Library Presented for the unique use of art or mediums other than landscaping to enhance an outdoor space. Assessment based on: overall effect, perceived value to the community, integration with surrounding architecture and neighborhood. Presented by: Boone County National Bank
Award winner
Presented for exceptional architectural design. Assessment based on: harmony with surrounding environment, overall appearance and impact, creative design elements and approach. Presented by: Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau
Award winner
Presented for excellence in the restoration of a historic structure. Assessment based on: degree of difficulty, overall appearance, impact on the surrounding area, extent to which the restoration retains the distinguishing qualities and character of the original construction. Presented by: Columbia Chamber of Commerce
Award Finalists
Award winner
phoenix Award winner
shelter gardens
orr street studios
Presented for outstanding landscape design. Assessment based on: initial visual impact, balance, grouping and placement of plant materials and harmony of the landscape design with the surrounding architecture. Presented by: Hidden Treasures Botanical Tours
Presented for exceptional adaptive reuse of an existing building. Assessment based on: quality and degree of difficulty of the project, impact on the surrounding area, creative use of materials, design elements and creative approach. Presented by: Regional Economic Development Inc.
ray rothenberger
Development of Distinction Woodrail Centre
Inspiration Award
Nexus, Boone Hospital Center Perseverance, Boone County Fire Protection District The Horses, Landmark Bank
Striking Structure Award Missouri Employers Mutual Bond Life Sciences Center, MU
Historic Preservation Award Atkins City Centre Lela Raney Wood Hall
Ray Rothenberger Award Missouri Credit Union MFA Oil Co.
DIVIDENDS
The Swing Of Things You Could Be Just One Great Golf Club Away From PGA Fame And Fortune by JESSICA PERKINS photos by L.G. PATTERSON
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1. Taylor Made Monza Itsy Bitsy Spider, $240 at Columbia Country Club Golf Shop; 2. Studio Select Kombi By Scotty Cameron for Titleist, $349 at Columbia Country Club Golf Shop; 3. Taylor Made R9 Driver, $399.99 at Pro Am Golf; 4. Nike SQ Sumo Hybrid, $179.99 at Pro Am Golf; 5. Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled Wedge, $125 at Columbia Country Club Golf Shop; 6. Cleveland CG12 RTG DSG With Zip Grooves, $138 at Columbia Country Club Golf Shop
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ceo at play
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aking a few too many mulligans lately? (Not even sure what a mulligan is?) Whether you’re a regular golfer or just starting out, the local golf experts of Columbia can help outfit you with a new set of clubs to match your stature, game and budget. We chatted up avid golfers at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Pro Am Golf, and the Columbia Country Club Golf Shop to see what they’re recommending this year. PGA Professional Scott Bess of Dick’s Sporting Goods suggests that female beginners consider either the Lady Hagen Women’s T3 Golf Set or the Slazenger Mystique Women’s Graphite Golf Set; men may be better suited to the Walter Hagen Men’s T3 Golf Set or the Adams Golf Tight Lies Plus Complete Set. Experienced players looking for new clubs to covet might enjoy super-adjustable drivers, such as the Callaway Big Bertha Diablo Driver, and trendy-looking irons that maintain their functionality, such as the Callaway X-22 Iron (all prices available upon request). Golf fanatics at Pro Am favor the Nike Sumo SQ Hybrid ($179.99) for novices, but they might prescribe the Taylor Made R9 Driver ($399.99) for more advanced players. Columbia Country Club Golf Shop’s PGA Professional Brett Bieske proposes that first-time golfers may be most comfortable with wedges and putters manufactured by top brands such as Titleist and Cleveland, due to their visibility and familiarity. He advises beginners to start with a pitching wedge and a traditional 56-degree sand wedge, and stresses that players of all levels should look for clubs that not only fit well, but also look appealing to the player. Bess and Bieske agree that the most important insider tip is to ask for assistance in choosing clubs that correspond to your swing and lifestyle, whether this requires careful shopping or even customization. “My recommendation is that, regardless, you buy a set that matches your game,” Bieske says. Oh, and a mulligan? It’s just a fancy golf term for a do-over, Bieske explains. Now go practice that swing!
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ceo at play
What’s Your Number, Columbia? Amateur golfers have been using handicaps since the early 20th century. A handicap allows golfers to shave strokes off their score so that players of differing abilities can compete on more equitable terms. The lower the handicap, the better the golfer. A golfer with a handicap of zero is considered a “scratch” golfer. A handicap can vary, depending on the difficulty of the course being played. A golfer can use his or her USGA Handicap Index to figure the day’s handicap. Here’s how some of Columbia’s golfers stack up, according to the Golf Handicap and Information Network.
The Bankers: Perhaps it’s not true that bankers spend half their days on the golf course. Their golf handicap indices reveal that some of them are spending too much time at the office. Hardeep Bhullar, The Callaway Bank..................................................................................................................... 7.4 Jim Bornhauser, Boone County National Bank.....................................................................................................1.4 Steve Erdel, Boone County National Bank..........................................................................................................14.6 David Keller, Bank of Missouri...............................................................................................................................17.7 Jeff MacLellan, Landmark Bank.............................................................................................................................14.1 Chuck Menke, Merchants and Farmers Bank.....................................................................................................6.3 Steve Sowers, Commerce Bank............................................................................................................................+1.4 Greg Steinhoff, Boone County National Bank...................................................................................................15.0
The Asset Protectors: These folks are in the business of deductions and deductibles, so they’re comfortable deducting a few strokes off their final score. Charlie Digges Sr., The Insurance Group............................................................................................................ 15.5 Charlie Digges Jr., The Insurance Group..............................................................................................................4.3 Jeff Echelmeier, Williams-Keepers CPAs..............................................................................................................3.1 Bob Gerding, Gerding, Korte & Chitwood CPAs................................................................................................11.4 Skip Grossnickle, The Insurance Group................................................................................................................3.7 Russ Starr, Williams-Keepers CPAs.................................................................................................................... 13.7 Jon Sundvold, Sundvold Financial.......................................................................................................................+0.4 Roger Wilson, Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance..................................................................................... 7.8
Golfing With The Stars How do local golfers match up with the Hollywood elite? Looks like some Columbians are almost ready for prime time. <<< Byron Hill (ABC Labs) and Bruce Willis are men of action
with handicap indices of 16.3 and 16.
n Bob Pugh (MBS Textbook Exchange) = Tom Selleck (at least
on the golf course) with handicap indices of 24.4 and 24.7, respectively. n Marty Siddall’s (KOMU) 1.7 handicap index outshines Alex Baldwin’s 2.5. n Tim Rooney (University of Missouri) and Jack Lemmon are an odd couple with handicap indices of 1.5 and 17, respectively. n Billy Sapp (Con-Agg of Missouri) and Mikhail Baryshnikov make an interesting but equitable duo with handicap indices of 16.6 and 16. n Paul Humphrey is a surgeon in real life. Bob Newhart played a psychologist on TV. Both are good golfers with respective handicap indices of 6 and 8.2. n Chris Davis (Peckham & Wright Architects) doesn’t know Jack (Nicholson) but they’d make a heck of a team with Davis’ 6 handicap index and Nicholson’s 10.7.
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DIVIDENDS
Inside The Garage Mahal Bob Hurdle’s Corvette Collection Would Make Any Car Lover Turn Red With Envy by SANDY SELBY photos by L.G. PATTERSON
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t’s not a collection, it’s a midlife catastrophe. Bob Hurdle laughs as he shares his 13-year-old daughter’s take on his bent for collecting cars. Even his wife, June, says he’s crazy, but she smiles as she says it. It takes all of five seconds in the Hurdles’ expansive garage to learn two important things about Bob: he loves Corvettes and his favorite color is red.
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Five Corvette C2s form a sleek red line along one side of the L-shaped garage. The C2s were produced from 1963 through 1967, and Hurdle has an example from each year. The first in a chronological line is the 1963 model. “This is what they call a ’63 split-window,” Hurdle says as he shows off the divided rear window. “They only made it one year. This car was actually originally sold in Honolulu, Hawaii.” Hurdle knows the pedigree of each of his Corvettes. Most only had one owner before him and most are low mileage. “Every one is all-original, not modified, and every one runs great,” he says. He stops at the 1964 model. “I bought the 1964 from the original owner, then had it restored to its original condition.” Hurdle enjoys tracking down original parts for his restorations. He knows every nut and bolt on every car, and each is
collections Bob Hurdle has built a dream garage to house his Corvette collection, which includes a pristine example of every C2, starting with the 1963 model (in the foreground). Above right: after a complete, frame-off restoration, this 1967 looks like it did when it was showroom new. Below right: Although his Corvettes are all road-ready, Hurdle only gets behind the wheel for shows and other special occasions.
unique. The 1965, for example, has a white interior and top, a feature very few of the Corvettes produced that year possessed. June Hurdle talks about her husband’s dogged quest for particular models and features. “For years he searched for a ’63 split window. Back then I thought it was a search for one special car; however once he found it the quest continued. For years the mid-year collections was missing the ’65 until he found just the right car,” she says. “He was very particular. It had to be red, it had to be original, it had to have a white interior. He finally found it a few years ago in Arizona.” The C2 tour concludes with the ’66 — “originally a California car, but it’s a Missouri car now,” Hurdle says — and the ’67. “The ’67 here was a frame-off restoration. Everything was taken apart, clear down to the frame. I was involved in taking it all apart, getting it reconditioned, and putting it back together. It’s a bigblock, tri-power, which means it has three carburetors,” he adds. “It’s very fast, very loud — kind of the ultimate Corvette.” Bob Hurdle, a real estate developer, was raised in Columbia and recently returned here after a long detour through California. “I went to Rock Bridge, attended the University of Missouri, and ended up working for a construction company owned by Tom Atkins that eventually took me to California. I worked for him for a couple of years out there,” he says. “Then I started my own construction business, ADCO. After 20 years in California, we sold the business and decided to move our family back to Columbia.” Hurdle is now in the planning phase of a resort-style development at Old Hawthorne for adults who are 50 and older. Fall 2009
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collections
June and Bob Hurdle met in Columbia as college students. After several years in California, they moved their family back to mid-Missouri. Bob is in the planning stages of a new housing development at Old Hawthorne for adults who are 50+.
June Hurdle calls her husband’s building “Bob’s Garage Mahal,” and with good reason. Every amenity a car collector could dream of was included, from diamond-plate wainscoting to an interior wash bay to an office loft that overlooks all those gorgeous cars. The working side of the garage features lifts, a detailing room, and tools and gadgets galore. More cars are lined up in that area. Some, like a gray 1968 Pontiac Firebird, seem a bit out of place in Corvette heaven. “He saw it in a parking lot in California and said ‘It’s just like the one I had in high school,’” June says with a touch of bemusement. The Firebird fixer-upper sits near a gleaming, red (of course) 1990 Corvette ZR-1, a Z06 Ron Fellows signed special edition, and a replica of a Grand Sport Corvette racecar. “It’s a replica because there are only five originals,” Hurdle says. “The Grand Sport was the top-secret project of Corvette’s Chief Engineer Zora Duntov in early 1962; however, GM pulled the plug on the program, but not before five cars had been built. The original cars are highly collectible. This replica is one of 59 built by Mid America Industries.” The only Ford in the collection, a 2005
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Ford GT, waits in the corner and even sitting idle in a garage, it looks fast. “They made 4,038 of these cars in 2005 and 2006,” Hurdle says. “I had a model of the original GT40 racecar from the 1960s when I was a kid so when they came out with this car, I decided to buy one and it’s very fun. Very fast and very high-tech.” Bob Hurdle’s penchant for collecting doesn’t end with cars. His garage is decorated with Texaco memorabilia, restored gasoline pumps, some of his childhood Matchbox cars and G.I. Joes, and a few old bicycles. In fact, it was a bicycle that started it all. “Probably 12 or 13 years ago, when I was in California, a flier came to the house about an auction for old bicycles,” he says. Since he already owned a few old bikes, he decided to go look around at the government auction. “I got down to the sale and they had about 20 cars there also. They didn’t even advertise the cars. They had a little Austin-Healey down there and I thought I’d see if I could buy the thing.” His winning bid sparked the beginning of a new hobby. Hurdle eventually traded the Austin-Healey for the ’63 Corvette, and a new passion (or a mid-life catastrophe, depending on whom you ask) was born.
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PUBLISHER’S NOTE
We’re Bullish About Columbia’s Future
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or the last few months, I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say, “Are you crazy? What kind of genius starts a magazine during a recession?” I quickly respond that it’s a bold move but there’s never been a better time to make an investment in something as sound as Columbia’s future. Fifteen years ago last month, my wife and I made a similarly bold move when we moved back to Columbia to launch the Columbia Business Times. During these last 15 years, we’ve seen a lot of businesses come and go and we’ve seen Columbia evolve into a sophisticated, forward-thinking community. And now we’re ready to double-down on our investment. I’ve never been as bullish about Columbia’s economic future as I am today. I believe there’s a very positive “perfect storm” brewing on our city’s horizon and our local business community is poised to reap the benefit. As a result, we set out to create a business magazine that could chronicle these important developments and give local business leaders a fresh perspective on the many new opportunities being presented. One such development in our new economy is the recent achievement of the milestone population mark of 100,000. While this is likely to present its most immediate opportunities in the retail and hospitality sectors, the acquisition of land and subsequent development and construction for these new businesses will still provide a welcome boost in construction jobs. Although some experts disagree, there’s hope that our new population status will put us on new radar with national site selectors who
previously never would have considered Columbia. The recent opening of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Menard’s Home Improvement, and the planned opening of two new Hy-Vee stores shows that national and regional retailers still have great confidence in Columbia’s future economic vitality. Fortunately, the major drivers in our local economic engine have not let the recession slow them down. Major construction projects in the health care and education industries are promising signs. A new $125 million patient tower at Boone Hospital Center will be complete next year. A $200 million expansion is under way at MU Health Care involving the construction of its Orthopedic Institute, a new Ellis Fishel cancer hospital and a surgery tower. The University of Missouri’s investment of $30 million in power plant upgrades is another contribution to the local building boom. Taking the long view, I’m particularly optimistic about what’s happening with the newly established Missouri CORE Partnership and the regional collaboration that is taking place between the 12 mid-Missouri counties that have formed this partnership. By combining our positive attributes, we can successfully demonstrate our collective strengths and get the attention of key decision makers across the country. We can expect to see the fruit of these efforts as the economy begins to improve in coming months. Perhaps our community’s greatest asset is its intellectual capital. We live and do business in a very smart community. Though you might not immediately get a
August 11, 1994, launch party for Columbia Business Times at Flat Branch Pub & Brewing
sense of this when you’re driving around town, there is a considerable brain trust in our community. With president Gary Forsee’s strong leadership at the helm of the University of Missouri system, there is hope that Columbia will finally begin to reap an even greater economic reward from its relationship with the university. For years, we’ve discussed the potential economic benefit that can come when academic research is transferred to realworld product development. With a gentle push here and a little nudge there, it looks as if this is about to become a reality.
our mission Our mission is to bring a fresh perspective on local business news that offers insightful analysis on the issues and businesses that define our community’s economic engine. This won’t be possible without your participation and feedback. To help facilitate a strong connection with our readers, we’ve appointed an editorial advisory board made up of local business leaders who are deeply entrenched in a wide range of local business sectors. We hope to tap into their experiences and perspective to make Inside Columbia’s CEO a relevant and useful resource for you. We’re hoping to build upon our 15-year tradition of bringing you outstanding business coverage. It has been our great privilege to bring you Inside Columbia and Prime magazines, and now we look forward to building our business as we cover your business. Fall 2009
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CLOSING QUOTES
What Columbia’s Business People And Community Leaders Are Saying “By the way, Mayor, to help with the city budget, you could offer to take a big pay cut.” CEO Roundtable participant Greg Steinhoff joking with Columbia’s volunteer Mayor Darwin Hindman
“I’ll just do that right now.” Hindman in response
“It doesn’t do any good to adopt a regulation unless it’s effective.”
Don Stamper, executive director of the Central Missouri Development Council, on a proposed county ordinance regulating storm water runoff in new developments
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“it’s just a fact of life. Some people bike. Some people drive. It’s nothing to stress out about.” Robert Johnson, PedNet’s education coordinator
“Sometimes we need to be a leader, and sometimes we need to be a servant.” VA Mortgage Center co-founder Brock Bukowsky on the wisdom he found within the pages of Leadership by the Book by Ken Blanchard
“I just seemed to be a little different about how I was approaching our men’s basketball program.”
University of Missouri Athletic Director Mike Alden on the importance of treating everyone with the same level of consistency
“It’s a legitimate compromise to make on privacy rights in high-risk areas, that the city is responsible for, that people elect to use. You don’t have that kind of choice when you’re walking down the street.” City Councilman Karl Skala, after viewing a surveillance camera video of Adam Taylor being beaten in a downtown parking garage, on why he felt surveillance cameras were OK in parking garages but not for use on downtown streets (the surveillance camera video led to the arrest of three suspects in the beating)
“You have no right to privacy when you’re walking on a public street. Anyone who tells you that you do, simply doesn’t know the law.” Kurt Schaefer, a state senator and former prosecutor during the CEO Roundtable luncheon
“Darwin has reigned longer than Queen Victoria.” Former Columbia mayor Bob Pugh about current Mayor Darwin Hindman at the CEO Roundtable Luncheon, one day before Hindman announced he would not seek re-election
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