January Quarterly Meeting To Feature 20^th Anniversary Celebration and Review of
Kansas City Star’s Top 10 Suburbs Series

We’ll kick off 2006 with a great Quarterly Meeting set for 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, January 4, at Truman Medical Center Lakewood. The meeting will feature: 

• A review and celebration of LSEDC’s 20^th Anniversary. We’re inviting our former Chairs and Presidents, and we’ll look back over the many significant accomplishments the LSEDC has been a part of since our founding in 1986.

• Jeff Spivak of the Kansas City Star  will join us to discuss his intriguing and, some would say, controversial ranking of the top suburbs in Greater Kansas City area. In case you missed it, Lee’s Summit ranked 10th out of 40 suburbs to be reviewed.

• We will also have a special LSEDC birthday gift for all who attend

As well as the above items, we will introduce a new feature of our E-newsletter that will highlight various local businesses and business leaders in a question and answer interview (similar to the format Kansas City Magazine uses in each issue). The series will be open to any Investor, inside or outside of Lee's Summit. Selection for each issue of the E-news will take place at the prior Quarterly Investor Meeting, via a drawing. Thus, this January meeting will be the first drawing for our March E-newsletter. If you are an LSEDC Investor and would like us to potentially feature your business in the next E-newsletter, bring a business card and drop it in the box! We are excited to include this opportunity to help showcase our Investors in the community!

We have already received RSVPs from several people. If you have not yet responded, please RSVP for your seat at the January 4 meeting to Shannan Cunniffe (525-6617), or at scunniffe@leessummit.org by December 28. Also, please note two other administrative items: First - because of the growing popularity of our Quarterly Investor Meetings, in order to expedite your time spent at the registration table on meeting day, we have started sending out invoices as soon as a guest registers for the meeting (rather than sending them out after the meeting). You are still more than welcome to pay at the door via cash or check, but many have expressed interest in receiving invoices as they register. Second - please also note that, as is stated on our invoices, all no shows or late cancellations will be billed for the meeting. It is not our intent to make money from the meetings - we charge in order to pay for the lunches. Thus, once a lunch has been ordered, we do need to bill for it.  We look forward to seeing you in January, and have a happy holiday season!

Redesigned Web Site Really is a Web Gem

In early November our redesigned website went live, and we mailed postcards to 2,500 area business leaders and opinion makers, inviting them to take a look. Wow, does advertising work! Tracking reports showed the site had: 

On average, our visitors read three pages of our site, and the top download was our popular Lee’s Summit Advantage, which ranks us against other high-quality-of-life communities around the country.  

However, out of all the statistics, the one we found most interesting was the most frequently used primary search word, "schools." This proves again the broad and deep appeal of Lee’s Summit as a high quality location known for its good schools.

Local Schools Earn Distinction in Performance Award AGAIN!

Speaking of schools, Blue Springs R-4 and Lee’s Summit R-7 School Districts recently earned the State’s Distinction in Performance award. Blue Springs and Lee’s Summit are two of only 19 schools statewide to earn the honor for the fifth consecutive year, and both did so this year with perfect scores.

Entrepreneurial Spirit Thrives in Greater Kansas City and Lee’s Summit

Entrepreneur magazine recently ranked Kansas City 11^th in its list of "Hot Cities for Entrepreneurs." Two key indexes it relied on were business formation and business growth as it reviewed the entire metro’s success in being able to create and sustain new businesses.

Starting with this quarter’s e-newsletter, we will periodically highlight local, successful entrepreneurial ventures that make our community a better place to live, work and succeed.

Summit Bank of Kansas City opened for business in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Rick Viar, president of the new community bank and LSEDC Advisory Board member, said the bank opened on Friday, November 18th after receiving all required regulatory approvals and an overwhelming response from local investors to the bank’s stock offering.

Summit Bank, a Benefactor- level LSEDC investor, is a full-service community bank focused on providing commercial and personal banking services to small and medium-sized businesses and individuals using a full range of loan, deposit and cash management products. The bank is located at 1650 NE Grand, Suite 100 in Lee’s Summit. Lobby hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. -  5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. - noon. Several LSEDC investors serve on its Board.

Focus on Lee’s Summit Entrepreneurs: CEAH Realtors

It’s Full Speed Ahead for CEAH Realtors Our most recent Pacesetter Investor, former LSEDC Executive Committee Member and successful entrepreneur Mike Atcheson, president and CEO of CEAH Realtors (pictured left) is reshaping the Lee’s Summit landscape in some exciting new ways. A review of several projects show the development company’s growing impact throughout our community.

Commercial/Retail Projects 

• The company broke ground recently on a new 13,000 square-foot Class-A office building to house its headquarters. Located at Ralph Powell and Strother roads, the building is due for completion in May 2006.

• At Chapel Ridge Business Park, six new buildings totaling over 100,000 square feet are on tap for completion in 2006; a 13,000 square foot office building has been leased to a mortgage company; two other buildings are under construction; and the Strother Road Interchange is under review by state and federal authorities.

• At Lakewood Business Center, located at Hagen Road next to the airport, CEAH has three new warehouse buildings totaling 74,000 square feet finished or under construction.

• At Raintree Lake Village several pad sites have closed at the 18-acre retail center located at Highway 150 and Ward Road. Another 70,000 square-foot shopping center breaks ground this month, opening early next summer.

Residential/Mixed Use

• Chapel Ridge Golf Club is going through rezoning to become a mixed use project of 123 single family homes, 60 town homes, 402 Class A apartments and 265,000 square feet of office/retail. With construction set to begin in January 2006, the project will build out in phases through 2009. The current clubhouse is set to be a banquet facility seating 275 people.

• Park Ridge will be a 434 single family residential community on Woods Chapel Road west of I-470. Construction of infrastructure is underway and expected to be complete in late spring of 2006 allowing for foundations to begin. In conjunction with the project, Woods Chapel Road will be widened to four lanes by 2007.

LSEDC is proud and grateful to have Mike Atcheson and CEAH among our top tier Pacesetter investors.

Mel Aytes, LSEDC Advisory Board member, was recently awarded the Mel Carnahan Hall-of-Fame Award by the Missouri Community College Association (MCCA). Mel’s contributions to higher education in Missouri are legion. For 41 years, Mel served as Director of Government Affairs for the Metropolitan Community College (MCC) system. For 30 of those years he also taught as a professor of political science. A quote from the MCCA Convention program states:

"No one was more admired or valued in Jefferson City than Mel Aytes in terms of higher education in the state of Missouri. Mel has made a bigger impact in support for higher education than perhaps any other individual, particularly in terms of community colleges. In 1995, Aytes was recognized by the Missouri House of Representatives with a resolution. He is the only legislative coordinator to be recognized on the floor of the House."

Longview Community College recognized Mel’s contributions in 2004 when it renamed a conference area and business department classrooms the Melvin A. Aytes Education Center. In addition, MCC established a lecture series on public issues and public service in his name.

A Lee’s Summit resident for 30 years, Mel has also served on several community committees. He currently serves as an LSEDC Advisory Board member. He has also served on committees to set pay for elected officials and to set City Council district boundaries. Mel served on the city’s Public Safety Advisory Board for many years and participated in the Lee’s Summit 21^st Century community based strategic plan. For this extensive involvement in the community, Mel was awarded the Mary Stacy Community Service Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Our hats are off to you, Mel!

Teeing Off for Economic Development

Internationally-respected Development Counselors International (DCI) recently surveyed 207 senior-level U.S. corporate executives with site selection responsibilities (www.dc-intl.com/WinningStrategies.cfm). They found that the most effective strategies and techniques to market to these critical decision makers were:

• Personal visits to corporate executives

• Websites

• Public relations

In keeping with these findings, your LSEDC is proud to work closely with the KCADC as it travels the country seeking potential companies to locate in greater Kansas City.

We have upgraded and are getting rave reviews for our feature-rich website, and our marketing and public relations efforts through Bill Musgrave keep us in the media and on the desks of site selection influencers through our highly successful postcard campaigns. As you may recall, the LSEDC was named Missouri’s Economic Development Marketer of the Year in 2002.

Is Lee’s Summit Creating and Attracting the Pool of Educated Workers Needed in the New Knowledge Economy?

Lee’s Summit’s outstanding educational infrastructure should serve us well as the nation’s economy transforms from an industrial and manufacturing base to the knowledge economy. Dean Whittaker, a thought leader in economic development recently published an article in The Whittaker Report (http://www.whittakerassociates.com/newsletter/new/Oct05a.htm where he says, "no longer do people move to work, but rather work moves to people. The performance of work takes place where there are pools of talent to do it. So what does this mean to economic development? Nowadays, our real challenge is to attract a pool of talented workers to our geographic area and keep them there."

Whittaker goes on to say that knowledge workers seek communities with good transportation networks, communications infrastructure and educational facilities. Certainly Lee’s Summit’s highway access, connectivity to high tech networks and the fine R-7, R-4, Lee’s Summit Community College, and branches of CMSU, Baker and Ottawa Universities all serve to provide the new generation of knowledge workers with the community attributes they desire. In addition, our community’s mix of quality residential housing, shopping and lifestyle features all serve to position us well for the future.

Noted futurist Richard Florida, who wrote about the Creative Class several years ago, has an intriguing view of the global economy. In an article entitled, "The World is Spikey," Florida sees more and more clustering of innovation, workers, entrepreneurs, patents and other measures of productivity in a relative handful of cities around the world. Many economists see the world becoming flatter due to globalization, Florida contends that the real winners may be the "spikes," while the vast valleys are left in the dust. Lee’s Summit and the metro Kansas City region must compete regionally, nationally and globally to be sure they are not left in the dust. That is why we work closely with the Kansas City Area Development Council, support Governor Blunt’s Quality Jobs Program, encourage Kansas City to lead the word in Life Sciences endeavors, and support the metro area to become THE Smart Port for North American Free Trade.

Investor Satisfaction Survey Results Are In

This is the fifth year we have polled our investors using a confidential, web-based questionnaire. Both closed- and open-ended questions elicit investors’ satisfaction levels with LSEDC’s Mission Statement, Goals, staff, value received, publications and events. We are pleased to report that over 90% of ALL our rankings were rated "good" or "excellent" with "excellent" being reported over 60% of the time!

Of our four priority goals, Industry Retention and Expansion remains as rated the top "very appropriate" priority for the fifth year in a row. Our quarterly investor meetings and the e-newsletter garnered the most "excellent" ratings. Community Product Improvement is emerging as the second preferred goal. These findings, as in the past, will be used in planning our events and activities for next year.